CNBC Asia

Stocks in Asia Pacific were lower on Thursday, with shares in mainland China leading losses regionally as the Shanghai composite dropped more than 4%.

Unemployment and corporate bankruptcies are likely to increase in the coming months, said Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

"We've seen increased flows into Singapore from a variety of destinations, of sources and that includes Hong Kong. But the amounts are not large," said Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

A weaker yuan has previously been a key source of contention between U.S. and the China, with U.S. President Donald Trump accusing Beijing of intentionally letting its currency slide lower.

Taiwan has reported only seven deaths so far from Covid-19. Everything is mostly reopened, and the only signs of Covid-19 are the frequent temperature checks and the expectation to wear masks on the subway. Here's what it did right.

"Broader implementation of masking policies could mitigate the spread of infection in the general population," the researchers wrote.

Trump said that while coronavirus testing "is a good thing," it has also served as "fodder for the fake news to report cases."

"Whatever they can do to fix the data in the interim is great. Long term, it needs to be improved in general," said Dr. Bill Winkenwerder, former assistant secretary of Defense for health affairs.

"The time is now," Dr. Robert Redfield, Director of the CDC, said Tuesday. "I think if we could get everybody to wear a mask right now I think in four, six, eight weeks we could bring this epidemic under control."

Moderna's potential vaccine to prevent Covid-19 produced neutralizing antibodies in all 45 patients in its early stage human trial, according to newly released data.

Stocks in Asia shed earlier gains and were mixed on Wednesday as concerns over U.S.-China tensions weighed on investor sentiment.

Asia has become "much, much smarter" in the way they handle further coronavirus outbreaks, which will help the region's aviation industry recover in a "much more sustainable" way, said AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes.

The Chinese yuan is set to see a sizable appreciation against the greenback in the next 12 months, according to Zach Pandl of Goldman Sachs.

"Something happened in mid-June that we're now confronting right now," Redfield said. "And it's not as simple as just saying it was related to timing of reopening or not reopening."

The Trump administration has increasingly disregarded advice from its top scientific advisors on Covid-19, with Trump himself calling the CDC's guidelines on school reopenings too cumbersome and expensive.

Moderna will begin its late-stage trial testing a potential vaccine to prevent Covid-19 on July 27, according to a posting published Tuesday on ClinicalTrials.gov.

A squirrel in Colorado has tested positive for the bubonic plague, also known as the "Black Death," according to local health authorities.

The device, which is in the early stages of development, would function much like a pregnancy test, said Cathy Tarnowski, senior technical manager at 3M.

The turnaround time for Covid-19 tests taking days to a week or longer for many patients, two of the country's biggest lab diagnostics companies said Monday.

China's dollar-denominated trade data for June was released on Tuesday. Exports rose 0.5% year-on-year while imports increased 2.7% as compared to a year earlier, according to customs data.