Reserve Bank of Malawi predicts slow tourism recovery due to Covid-19

A senior Reserve Bank of Malawi official is predicting a slow recovery of the tourism industry the hardest hit by Covid-19.

Central bank governor Wilson Banda says although the country is registering less cases of covid-19, the world wide impact is still crashing the Malawi tourism industry.

Tourism has been listed as Malawi’s Covid-19 hardest hit sector with abundant job losses and closure of companies.

Banda said the slow recovery of the tourism industry is slowing the country’s path to economic recovery as the sector contributes to national production despite its minimal GDP value.

He said the industry has registered many job losses due to the covid-19 impact.

Banda said that although domestic business may offer good recovery steps, the sector’s healing should not be expected soon.

As of yesterday, the country registered six new cases of covid-19 with three recoveries, bringing the number of recoveries to 5,492, no new deaths, pegging the death toll to 184 and the country has 5971 active cases.

However, for the second time in as many weeks, there is promising news from the race for a Covid-19 vaccine as infections surge across the United States and Europe.

US biotech firm Moderna Inc on Monday said preliminary data from a continuing phase three study of its experimental Covid-19 vaccine showed it to be 94.5 percent effective.

“This is a pivotal moment in the development of our Covid-19 vaccine candidate,” said Moderna’s CEO Stephane Bancel in a statement. “This positive interim analysis from our Phase 3 study has given us the first clinical validation that our vaccine can prevent Covid-19 disease, including severe disease.”

The news follows on from last week’s announcement from US drug giant Pfizer that phase three trial results for the Covid-19 vaccine it is developing with Germany’s BioNTech showed it to be more than 90 percent effective.

The results of both trials place Moderna and Pfizer on track to seek authorisation from the US Food and Drug Administration in the coming weeks for emergency use of their vaccines.

If they get the green light from the FDA, supplies of both vaccines would be limited and rationed before the end of the year. Both vaccines require people to get two shots, several weeks apart.

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