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National Football League fans gather in downtown Tampa prior to Super Bowl LV during the COVID-19 pandemic on January 30, 2021 in Tampa, Florida.

Octavio Jones | Getty Images

The National Football League is preparing for the final competition of the season with Super Bowl LV in Tampa Bay, and the league promises the event will not become a Covid-19 superspreader.

The NFL said it would be handing out kits of hand sanitizer and KN95 masks to fans during Sunday’s game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers to limit the spread.

NFL manager Jeff Miller said the wearing of masks will be mandatory for fans, players and team staff and the league will enforce social distancing measures. The NFL said attendance at the 65,000-seat Raymond James Stadium will be limited to 25,000, including 7,500 vaccinated health workers.

“It has been a lot of work by a lot of people and a lot of commitment with local, state, and national health officials to do this as safely as possible,” said Miller, who oversees the NFL public and political affairs.

Health and safety experts speaking to CNBC agreed with the way the NFL is coordinating their event, but still raised issues.

“My biggest concern about when Covid-19 could spread in the stadium isn’t necessarily with people sitting in their seats,” said Stephen Kissler, an epidemiologist at Harvard University. “It is actually when they mingle in other parts of the stadium.”

The San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs fans watch during the Super Bowl LIV game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, FL on February 2, 2020.

Robin Alam | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images

What is the plan?

Kissler, a researcher in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, said people who gather in lines to enter the stadium or wait for concessions are more likely to spread droplets containing the virus.

To counteract this, the NFL has its own entry points, which are larger for the fans present, although they don’t offer temperature tests at the gates.

The NFL also sells Super Bowl tickets in groups of two to six so that they can sit in “pods” together. Jonathan Barker, the NFL’s head of live event production, said the pods were not placed too close together and a maximum of 10 people per pod.

“There will never be anyone in front of or behind another person,” said Barker, counting on 30,000 clippings of fans to fill the empty spaces.

Barker, who has been in Tampa Bay since Jan. 4, said the stadium had undergone rigorous daily cleaning. “And when we have three days off, we will step up that effort to clean, disinfect and disinfect everything,” he said.

The NFL estimates that by kick-off there will be around 200,000 health screenings for people working on the event, including staff. BioReference Laboratories, a diagnostics company, supports the NFL’s health and safety efforts at Super Bowl LV. The company is expected to distribute 35,000 PCR tests to employees and salespeople at the stadium.

In order to limit contact, the NFL has partnered with Visa to offer cashless ATM transactions. These corporations will go in two different directions.

In Tampa Bay, Mayor Jane Castor mandated outdoor masks near targets near the Super Bowl. Epidemiologist Kissler said the limited capacity and atmosphere outdoors, as well as the vaccinated fans should help, but warned, “We still don’t know exactly how much the vaccine prevents the spread of Covid-19.”

“We have to remain vigilant, keep our distance, wear masks and keep up with sensible measures that we have become so familiar with over the course of the year,” said Kissler.

Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL’s chief medical officer, said the tracing plans were shared with federal health officials, including President Joe Biden’s Covid Task Force. He said the “detailed plan” provided guidelines for getting on and off.

“We take our responsibility very seriously to model the best behavior and show how we believe an event of this magnitude can be safely conducted,” said Sills.

A view of Raymond James Stadium, home of Super Bowl LV, during the COVID-19 pandemic on January 30, 2021 in Tampa, Florida.

Octavio Jones | Getty Images

No signs of anger

Although the league had its own problems with outbreaks among players and staff during the regular season, Sills said no persistent cases had occurred over NFL games. Miller said over 1 million people played 116 NFL games during his pandemic season.

“We haven’t traced an outbreak or cluster of cases to any of the places we’ve hosted fans,” said Sills. “It’s an important benchmark for us and something we’re really focusing on in this game.”

The league released the latest Covid test results on Tuesday, reporting zero new positive results from the players and one from the staff. To date, the NFL said 262 players and 463 staff have tested positive.

It is unknown if the NFL is insured for the Super Bowl. While discussing the NBA bubble in July, Attorney Alan Taylor suggested that the leagues need to seek new event guidelines as most had no insurance for a pandemic. Until the federal government supports such measures, they are likely to remain expensive.

“The guidelines that the professional leagues must receive must be new guidelines based on the new situation we are in,” said Taylor, co-chair of the professional liability division of Segal McCambridge Singer & Mahoney law firm.

Gil Fried, a stadium safety and risk management expert at the University of New Haven, said the NFL has a safe way out of legal troubles when outbreaks occur.

Fans participating in the game consent to the “taking of risks” associated with attending such an event, with Covid still very active. According to the Buccaneers website, fans must “leave, and not enter, the stadium grounds” if they do not consent to the risks associated with visiting Raymond James Stadium.

“This is a very big shield that the NFL will have,” Fried said. “I think the NFL will do a good job of enforcing the rules, but I think it’s a bigger problem with the fans and what they do,” he added. “You can have any rules you want, but if the fans don’t follow or do what they’re supposed to, you’re going to get into serious trouble.”

Fried suggested that the NFL use frequent announcements and other behavioral triggers to help fans adhere to protocols.

“They need signs,” said Fried. “They need announcements on their tapes in the stadium that all say, ‘This is what you have to do.’ They need to be constantly reminded. And make sure your security enforces it and dump them if they don’t meet the requirements. “

People walk past a Victoria’s Secret store in Barcelona.

John Milner | LightRocket | Getty Images

Victoria’s secret parent company L Brands shares rebounded Thursday after raising their quarterly outlook. They said they had strong sales in January and reiterated their plans to separate their businesses.

It also announced long-time CFO Stuart Burgdoerfer’s plans to retire in August. A search for his replacement is ongoing.

Burgdoerfer served as interim CEO of the lingerie retailer and will be replaced immediately in this role by Martin Waters, who is currently CEO of Victoria’s Secret Lingerie.

The company raised its earnings guidance for the fourth quarter from $ 2.70 to $ 2.80 per share to $ 2.95 to $ 3.00 per share. Sales in the same store are expected to increase 10% in the quarter, which includes a 22% increase at Bath & Body Works and a 3% decrease at Victoria’s Secret.

Shares rose more than 9% on Thursday morning. They are up 85% over the past year, bringing the company’s market value to $ 13.36 billion.

L Brands plans to separate its two brands, Victoria’s Secret and the faster growing Bath & Body Works, by August.

In a press release, the company said its board of directors had received updates from its financial advisors Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan at a meeting in January, and was considering splitting Victoria’s Secret into a public company or selling the company.

L Brands closed a deal to sell Victoria’s Secret last year, but it fell apart. Private equity firm Sycamore Partners agreed to acquire a majority stake in Victoria’s Secret for $ 525 million. This would have privatized the brand. However, it was scrapped in May when the pandemic temporarily closed stores and added to Victoria’s Secret challenges.

The company has gone through a reorganization to stabilize its flagship brand. During the pandemic, the company benefited from strong sales from its other retail chain, Bath & Body Works, as Americans stock up on soap and hand sanitizer.

A stronger than expected Christmas season was reported last month. In the nine weeks ending January 2, sales in the same store rose 5% as shoppers bought pajama pants and candles. Sales in the same store decreased 3% in the comparable nine weeks of the previous year.

The company will announce its fourth quarter results on February 24th.

The signage is outside of a Yum! Brands Inc. Restaurant Taco Bell and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) in Louisville, Kentucky, USA, on Thursday, January 30, 2020.

Luke Sharrett | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Yum Brands reported quarterly results and sales on Thursday that beat analysts’ projections, despite international dining room closures weighing on sales growth at KFC and Pizza Hut in the same business.

The company’s shares rose less than 1% in premarket trading.

The company reported, versus Wall Street’s expectations based on an analyst survey by Refinitiv:

• Earnings per share: $ 1.15, adjusted versus expected $ 1.01
• Revenue: $ 1.74 billion versus $ 1.72 billion expected

Yum reported net income of $ 332 million, or $ 1.08 per share, for the fourth quarter, compared with $ 488 million or $ 1.58 per share a year earlier.

Disregarding items, the company earned $ 1.15 per share, beating the analysts surveyed by Refinitiv at $ 1.01 per share.

Net sales increased 3% to $ 1.74 billion, beating expectations of $ 1.72 billion. Globally, the company’s sales in the same store declined 1% in the quarter, and Taco Bell was the only brand to see positive sales growth in the same store.

At KFC, total sales in the same store decreased 2%. Sales in the US in the same store increased 8%, in international locations sales in restaurants that have been open for at least a year decreased 4%. Only 18% of KFC’s sales come from its home market, and China accounts for more of its system sales than the US

Pizza Hut sales in the same store were only 1% lower for the quarter. The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the U.S. turnaround and helped cement its reputation for delivery and takeaway rather than dining out. Pizza chain sales in the same store in the United States rose 8% for the quarter. Outside the US, however, Pizza Hut is taking longer to recover, and international sales in the same store were down 7%.

Habit Burger Grill, which was acquired by Yum last year, posted a 5% drop in sales in the same store. The burger chain is much smaller than the other brands from Yum.

Yum added 227 new Netto restaurants in the quarter. Pizza Hut was the company’s only brand to close more locations than opened.

Read the full report here.

SINGAPORE – JPMorgan sees the outlook for Indonesia as positive, although the country is still grappling with rising Covid infections and the number of cases has topped a million lately.

The country’s young population is part of the reason for this optimism, said James Sullivan, head of ex-Japan Asian equity research at the investment bank.

“Demographically, Southeast Asia is very different from some of the developed countries we compare these countries with,” Sullivan told CNBC’s Squawk Box Asia on Wednesday.

In 2015, the average age of the Indonesian population was 28.5 years, according to Statista.

“Because they’re so much younger, they tend to tackle the mortality side of this conversation significantly better than some of the older, developed economies,” he said. “That’s a very important distinction when we think about it.”

As a result, lockdowns “may not be as necessary” in such countries – compared to places with significantly older populations that are at higher risk from Covid-19, the analyst said.

India as an example

To make his point clear, Sullivan used the example of India, a country that, according to Johns Hopkins University, ranks second in the world after the United States in terms of the number of Covid infections.

“There was long talk of infection rates in India until around August last year,” he said, adding that there were “very dire predictions” about the impact of the pandemic on the Indian economy.

These fears regarding India do not appear to have materialized as the daily number of Covid cases in the country has decreased significantly since then. Analysts have also said the economic recovery has been stronger than expected.

Still, according to Hopkins, Indonesia has had the highest number of Covid-19 cases in Southeast Asia.

As of Wednesday, Indonesia had more than 1.11 million coronavirus infections while at least 30,770 people had died from Covid-19, information from the country’s health ministry showed.

Other factors

In addition to Indonesia’s relatively young population, JPMorgan also sees “positive efforts” to stimulate growth across Indonesia’s economy, Sullivan said.

The government is pushing for a mutual fund called the Indonesia Investment Authority. According to reports, Indonesian President Joko Widodo plans to raise up to $ 100 billion.

Sullivan added that there has been a “significant recovery” in manufacturing, particularly in the export sector. In addition, the JPMorgan analyst cited the government’s vaccine efforts as another reason for its positive outlook.

Indonesia launched a Covid-19 vaccination program in January, which Reuters has named as one of the world’s largest campaigns. The country’s finance minister, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, recently told CNBC that it will take Indonesia at least a year to achieve “herd immunity” – which is when a large section of the population becomes immune to the disease.

– CNBC’s Yen Nee Lee contributed to this report.