COVID-19 Monitor

Last Updated:October 15, 2020

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Pandemic takes bite out of B.C.’s finances as projected surplus turns to deficit (CBC) Published on: August 31, 2020 | Category: Canadian Business, Economic Impact

The unexpected cost of the early COVID-19 response contributed to turning B.C.’s finances from a small surplus to a deficit of $321 million, according to the province’s 2019-20 audited financial statements.
The deficit represents a drop of $595 million from the $274 million surplus projected in the 2019 budget.

McKinsey: 75% of Americans have changed brands during the pandemic (ZDNet) Published on: August 31, 2020 | Category: Economic Impact, Global Response

Over 75% of U.S. consumers have changed shopping behavior and changed to new brands during the COVID-19 pandemic. The top three reasons for shopping for a new brand were value, availability and convenience.
Consumer spending is subject to more scrutiny. The research points to consumers being more mindful of spending that is likely to last for all of 2020.
40% of US consumers are planning to spend less, with greater focus on essentials.

Online grocery shopping surges during the pandemic, but will the habit stick? (The Globe and Mail) Published on: August 31, 2020 | Category: Canadian Business

Nearly 80 per cent of people reported buying something from Amazon in the past six months, according to a July survey of 1,350 Canadians by Toronto-based firm Solutions Research Group.
Nearly half of those surveyed said they have bought groceries online in the past six months.
Families with children were the biggest online grocery shoppers, with 57 per cent saying they had bought in the past six months, and 47 per cent in the past month.

The Covid-era protocol for face-to-face meetings (FT) Published on: August 31, 2020 | Category: Global Response, Leadership

Until the discovery of an effective vaccine, though, the handshake will probably also continue to be a reliable vector for resurgence of Covid-19, as hugs and kisses have been already in tactile Spain.
Within the world of more formal business or diplomatic meetings, centuries-old norms of behaviour are changing, shoved aside by blunter health and safety protocols.
For those in the public eye, the only option may seem to be to avoid social contact altogether. In the past week, Ireland’s agriculture minister and its EU commissioner have resigned after attending a golf society dinner that allegedly breached the Covid-19 limit on numbers.

Covid vaccine rush could make pandemic worse, say scientists (Guardian) Published on: August 30, 2020 | Category: Global Response

The rush to immunise populations against Covid-19 could lead to the rollout of a vaccine that is not very effective and risk worsening the pandemic, leading scientists have said.
Ministers announced on Friday that the UK would take emergency powers to push any vaccine through the regulatory processes with unprecedented speed before the end of the year. Donald Trump wants to be able to announce the US has a vaccine before tthe presidential election on 3 November.
They urged all regulators to stick to the WHO’s guidance, which says that no vaccine that is less than 30% effective should be approved. It recommends at least 50% effectiveness, but allowing for 95% accuracy that could mean 30% in practice.

Japan has the world’s oldest population. Yet it dodged a coronavirus crisis at elder-care facilities. (Washington Post) Published on: August 30, 2020 | Category: Global Response

Japan has the world’s oldest population, with an average age of 47 and a life expectancy of more than 81 years. More than 28 percent of its people are over the age of 65, ahead of Italy in second place with 23 percent, and compared with 16 percent of Americans.
Fewer than 1 percent of Americans live in nursing facilities, compared with 1.7 percent in Japan.
The disasters that unfolded in nursing homes in the United States and Western Europe during the pandemic have exposed the neglect and underfunding that have bedeviled elderly care in much of the West.
But culture also appeared to play an important role: Experts point to a higher priority given to elderly care within society, stronger measures already in place at care homes to prevent infections and high standards of hygiene.

Women are in the firing line in this ‘pink recession’ (FT) Published on: August 30, 2020 | Category: Leadership

We have grown used to seeing men in blue-collar jobs bear the brunt of recession retrenchments. This time is different.
More women are in paid work and they have held a lot of the jobs being axed, in sectors such as retail and accommodation. There is already talk of a “she-cession” in the US, where the unemployment rate in July was 9.4 per cent for men and 10.5 per cent for women.
Globally, McKinsey reckons women’s jobs are 1.8 times more vulnerable to this crisis than men’s jobs.
One could go on, about the fact that globally, women make up 70 per cent of health and social care workers, putting them at risk of infection. Or about the global rise in domestic violence during lockdowns that the UN calls a “shadow pandemic”. Or the UK data suggesting that pre-crisis, most personal protective equipment was not designed to fit women properly.

Global rally against COVID-19 safety measures comes to Parliament Hill (CBC) Published on: August 29, 2020 | Category: Global Response

Online misinformation about pandemic safety measures is thriving, experts say.
The group behind the rally is part of a wider movement of people across the globe venting their frustrations over science-backed measures designed to slow the spread of COVID-19.
The group behind the event in Canada’s capital calls itself a “leaderless” movement that doesn’t take political sides, and says it is mostly concerned with being forced to comply with the measures.

Airline analysts warn ‘the hardest part’ is yet to come (FT) Published on: August 29, 2020 | Category: Economic Impact, Global Response

In the past week alone, US carrier American Airlines said it would cut 19,000 jobs, Australian airline Qantas announced it would shed thousands more jobs and Norwegian Air Shuttle warned it needed another rescue package — only months after securing a bailout.
Analysts warn worse is yet to come as the prospect of second waves of infection and tough government rules on quarantine cripple airlines’ ability to forecast demand.
“You are getting airlines going from zero to 70 per cent capacity in the blink of an eye then having to ramp back down,” said Mark Manduca, an aviation analyst at Citi.

The U.S. Postal Service Is a Threat to Your Life (Foreign Policy) Published on: August 29, 2020 | Category: Global Response

Hardly anyone in the federal government seems to have given consideration to the health of more than 200 million Americans who depend upon the Postal Service for delivery of medicines, veterans’ assistance benefits, Social Security checks, food subsidies, child support, or deliveries of basic goods and food—dependencies that have been magnified by COVID-19.
Fourth, most physicians’ offices, hospitals, and health insurance companies send medical bills and require on-time receipt of payments from health consumers via mail.
According to a mid-August survey, 1 in 5 Americans expected a medicine delivery during the past week, and one-quarter of those deliveries were either delayed or never showed up.

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