Coronavirus Update: Tokyo raises virus medical alert to highest, German death toll eases from record top

Early Thursday, Nikkei came out with the news suggesting worsening the virus conditions in Tokyo while Germany’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI) unveiled recent easing the coronavirus (COVID-19) numbers, after Wednesday’s worrisome figures.

Nikkei said, “The Tokyo Metropolitan Government raised the alert level of the medical care provision system to the most serious “tight” with a four-level index in response to the increase in inpatients with the new coronavirus. This is the first time that it has been positioned as “tight” since the current 4-step index was established in July.”

On the other hand, Germany’s COVID-19 death toll eases from the record level of over 24,000 with the latest 698 addition to the list on December 16, 2020. On a weekly basis, total deaths surged 2,338 persons versus 1,600 virus-led deaths in the same period last week.

Market implications

Given the market players’ attention on the US stimulus, virus updates have had a little impact on the risk-tone off-late. That said, EUR/USD probes intraday high near 1.2228, up 0.35% on a day, by press time.

Read: EUR/USD bid above 1.22 as dollar sell-off continues