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BUSINESS Monday 30 noveMber 2020
UK stocks up on vaccines, hopes to start virus shots in days

By JILL LAWLESS to the U.K.'s Medicines and lated.
LONDON (AP) — Britain said Healthcare Products Regu- Peter Openshaw, profes-
Sunday it has secured 2 mil- latory Agency, to see if it sor of experimental medi-
lion more doses of a prom- is safe and effective. Two cine at Imperial College
ising coronavirus vaccine other vaccines — one de- London, said he "wouldn't
as it gears up to launch veloped by Pfizer and Ger- be too surprised if an an-
within days the country's man firm BioNTech, the oth- nouncement would be
most ambitious inoculation er by Oxford University and made within the next two
program in decades. AstraZeneca — are already weeks, possibly even as
The U.K. has had Europe's being assessed by the reg- early as next week."
deadliest coronavirus out- ulator, the final stage be- Non-medical staff including
break, with more than fore being rolled out. volunteer first-aiders are al-
58,000 confirmed virus-re- Britain has ordered 40 mil- ready being trained to give
lated deaths. It now hopes lion doses of the Pfizer/Bi- the shots, which will be ad-
to hit a more positive mile- oNTech vaccine and 100 ministered at around 1,000 Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, wearing a mask because
stone by becoming one million doses of the Oxford/ community vaccination of the coronavirus, has a close look at a sample at the Lateral
of the first countries in the AstraZeneca vaccine. centers and 40 to 50 large- Flow Testing Laboratory during a visit to the Public Health Eng-
land site at Porton Down science park near Salisbury, southern
world to start vaccinating Hospitals in England have scale facilities in stadiums England, on Friday Nov. 27, 2020.
its population against CO- been told they could re- and conference venues, Associated Press.
VID-19. ceive the first doses of the according to a govern-
The U.K. government has Pfizer shot as early as the ment planning document. we can be completely and restaurants still face
agreed to buy more than week of Dec. 7 if it receives Prime Minister Boris Johnson confident that we can restrictions and everything
350 million doses of vac- approval, the Guardian said officials hope to vac- vaccinate enough people from large weddings to
cines from seven different and Financial Times report- cinate "the vast majority of in the country, and thereby choir practices are being
producers, should they ed. The U.S. vaccination the people who need the remove enough targets for banned.
prove effective, as it pre- program also hopes to be- most protection by Easter." the virus, in order to beat Pfizer and BioNTech say
pares to vaccinate as gin inoculating some Amer- Writing in the Mail on Sun- the disease," he wrote. their vaccine is 95% effec-
many of the country's 67 icans in December. day, Johnson said the roll- A four-week national lock- tive, according to prelimi-
million people as possible. The government says front- out of a vaccine could be down in England is due to nary data. It must be stored
The Department of Health line health care workers "just days away." But he end Wednesday, and will at ultra-cold temperatures
said Sunday it had in- and nursing home residents said there would not be a be replaced by a three- of around minus 70 de-
creased its order for a vac- will be the first to be vac- quick end to the onerous tiered system of regional grees Celsius (minus 94
cine developed by U.S. firm cinated, followed by older restrictions on business and measures. The vast major- Fahrenheit). The Moderna
Moderna from 5 million to people, starting with those everyday life that have ity of the country is being vaccine, which also needs
7 million doses, enough for over 80. The plan is to work been imposed to curb the put into the upper two tiers, to be stored at freezer tem-
3.5 million people. down the age and risk spread of the virus. meaning most people will peratures, was also about
The Moderna vaccine is ex- groups until everyone 18 "There are still long weeks be barred from meeting up 95% effective in clinical tri-
pected to be referred soon and over has been inocu- and months ahead before with friends indoors, pubs als, the company said.q

Black Friday sees record online as US shoppers stay home

By DEE-ANN DURBIN AP global retail consulting. ends is that stores could re-
Business Writer Jewelry and footwear saw main closed on Thanksgiv-
Black Friday online sales hit some of the biggest in-per- ing Day, Field said. Since
a new record this year as son sales declines, accord- 2013, a growing number
pandemic-wary Americans ing to RetailNext, a shop- of stores had opened on
filled virtual carts instead of ping tracker. Apparel sales Thanksgiving to match
real ones. were down 50%, while sales their competitors and get a
Consumers spent an es- of home goods fell by 39%. jump start on Black Friday.
timated $9 billion on U.S. Even with that drop, Black But it's typically not a big
retail websites on Black Fri- Friday will still likely end up day for retailers, and this
day, according to Adobe as one of the biggest in- year many stayed closed.
Analytics, which tracks on- person shopping days in Thanksgiving store traffic
line shopping. That was a the U.S. this year, Field said. was down 95%, he said.
22% increase over the pre- He thinks many people will Field said stores may be re-
vious record of $7.4 billion still shop for the holidays thinking the cost of paying
set in 2019. in person, but will choose employees and opening Shoppers pass an Indigo Friday 40% Off sign Saturday, Nov. 28,
Meanwhile, traffic to physi- mid-week days when on Thanksgiving when they 2020, on Chicago's famed Magnificent Mile shopping district.
cal stores plummeted as crowds are smaller. Heavier could easily make up for Associated Press.
retailers tried to prevent in-store discounts and con- those sales online.
crowds by cutting their cerns about lengthy ship- "I wonder, now that we're numbers is that people are Big retailers such as
hours and limiting door- ping times could also draw seeing a season where shopping online for things Walmart and Target ben-
buster deals. U.S. store visits shoppers closer to Christ- they were able to cut the such as groceries and alco- efited from the surge, but
dropped by 52% on Black mas. cord on it, if it will give them hol that they bought in per- small retailers did as well,
Friday, according to Sen- "Black Friday had a lot to pause," he said. son before the pandemic, Adobe said. Sales at big
sormatic Solutions, a retail lose, but some of it is going Adobe expects Monday to Adobe said. As for more stores surged by 403% on
tracker. Traffic was slower to be distributed through- be the largest online sales traditional gifts, Hot Wheels Thanksgiving and Black
in the Northeast and West out the holiday season," day in U.S. history, with es- cars, Lego sets, Apple Air- Friday compared to the
than in the Midwest and Field said. timated spending of $10.8 Pods, Samsung televisions daily average in October,
South, said Brian Field, Sen- One trend that could re- billion to $12.7 billion. and video games are but sales at smaller retailers
sormatic's senior director of main after the pandemic One reason for the big among the biggest sellers. also grew by 349%.q