Btig Says Covid: 19 uncertainty looms despite vaccinations push

AtriCure

14/09/2021 17:26

** Brokerage BTIG says near-term uncertainty regarding
COVID-19 case rates persists despite the U.S. government's
efforts to push up vaccinations as students head back to school
coupled with the potential danger from new, contagious variants
    ** Brokerage spoke to two key opinion leaders (KOLs), who
noted a small uptick in COVID-19 hospitalizations and strain on
ICU capacity due to the Delta coronavirus variant, however the
impact was not as disruptive as it was early into the pandemic
    ** BTIG says it felt optimistic about hospital preparedness
to tackle a potential hospitalization surge in the New England
and the Mid-Atlantic regions, where the KOLs are from
    ** Expects respiratory products maker Vapotherm  VAPO.N ,
and Inari Medical Inc  NARI.N , which sells devices to remove
blood clots, to keep benefiting from new hospitalization surges;
says Masimo  MASI.O  may see greater demand for its patient
monitoring products
    ** Brokerage cautions of a hit to some medical device makers
including Abbott Labs  ABT.N , Boston Scientific Corp  BSX.N ,
Edwards Lifesciences  EW.N , AtriCure Inc  ATRC.O , Abiomed
 ABMD.O  and Acutus Medical Inc  AFIB.O 
    ** However, any near-term impact is likely to be temporary
as already demonstrated by the rapid recovery in procedure
volumes during Q2- brokerage

 (Reporting by Amruta Khandekar)
 ((Amruta.Khandekar@thomsonreuters.com;))