COVID-19 Monitor

Last Updated:October 15, 2020

Navigator Sight is an AI-powered news service for decision makers to stay abreast of the issues that matter most. As readers engage with a story, our machine learning algorithm improves. View updates here or sign up below to receive them in your inbox.

Get Notifications

Receive email updates. Subscribe now.

Browse:

Latest All Posts Topics

Canadian Business Economic Impact Global Response Leadership

Navigator Sight

Build your own monitor: Each Sight monitor can be customized to your organisation’s needs and continually improves through proprietary machine learning.

Get In Touch:

(416) 642-6440 info@navltd.com

All Posts

Fed to tolerate higher inflation in policy shift (FT) Published on: August 27, 2020 | Category: Economic Impact

The Federal Reserve has adopted a new strategy for monetary policy that will be more tolerant of temporary increases in inflation, cementing expectations that the US central bank will keep interest rates at ultra-low levels for years to come.
The centrepiece of the Fed’s new approach is the move to an average inflation target, which will allow it to overshoot the US central bank’s 2 per cent target to compensate for persistently low inflation, which has been weighing on the US and other economies in recent years.
Mr. Powell stressed that “the Fed has less scope to support the economy during an economic downturn by simply cutting the federal funds rate”.

How to reduce the mental trauma of covid-19 (The Economist) Published on: August 27, 2020 | Category: Global Response, Leadership

Not since the second world war have so many people in so many places been traumatised at once. Even after the disease itself is brought under control, the mental scars will linger.
In Spain nearly a sixth of those infected are health-care workers, and most of them show signs of ptsd.
In Bangladesh, where the incomes of poor people briefly fell by 80% when lockdowns were tight, 86% of people in one poll reported covid-19-related stress.
Research into previous disasters suggests that survivors’ long-term mental health depends more on “perceived support” than “received support”.

Millennials Help Power This Year’s Housing-Market Rebound (WSJ) Published on: August 27, 2020 | Category: Economic Impact, Global Response

Millennials reached a housing milestone early last year when the group first accounted for more than half of all new home loans, and they consistently held above that level in the first months of this year, the most recent period for which data are available, according to Realtor.com.
The generation made up 38% of home buyers in the year that ended July 2019, up from 32% in 2015, according to the National Association of Realtors.
The recession has been a major financial setback for millions of younger workers who lost their jobs in recent months. A persistently high unemployment rate among millennials could slow homebuying among the group in coming years.

Quebec won’t use COVID-19 notification app for now (CBC) Published on: August 26, 2020 | Category: Canadian Business

Quebec won’t use a smartphone application to notify the public about potential exposure to COVID-19 for now, arguing its testing and contact-tracing capability are sufficient at this stage of the pandemic.
“We would prefer a Quebec company, but I don’t think this is our main argument,” Legault said Tuesday afternoon in Saint-Hyacinthe, Que.
He says there is a lack of broad support for such an app in the province, due to privacy concerns.

Consumer confidence is wilting (Axios) Published on: August 26, 2020 | Category: Economic Impact, Global Response

Consumer confidence is moving backwards as more companies announce layoffs, jobs get harder to find and the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the economy.
It’s the latest indicator showing the U.S. economy is weakening moving into the back half of the year.
That consumer sentiment has fallen while the S&P 500 has risen for five straight months and by nearly 50% with housing prices counting superb back-to-back months suggests an increasing disconnect between markets and the economy.

Ottawa Food Bank braces for second wave (Ottawa Citizen) Published on: August 26, 2020 | Category: Canadian Business

The Ottawa Food Bank is bracing for a second wave of demand from local families in need of food.
The Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) is scheduled to end one month from now, and food bank CEO Michael Maidment expects that to trigger another wave of people looking for help from the charitable organization.
More than 3.4 million Ontarians applied for the $500-a-week government benefit, which was designed for people whose work has evaporated because of COVID-19.

Lex in-depth: why rescue finance will slow recovery for businesses (FT) Published on: August 26, 2020 | Category: Economic Impact, Global Response

Since the outbreak of coronavirus, businesses across the world have raised unprecedented sums from public and private sources.
In the US, S&P 500 non-financial companies were sitting on $1.35tn of cash and equivalents at the end of June, according to a Lex analysis of quarterly and half-year earnings data.
Globally corporations have raised $2tn so far this year in bonds alone, a $600bn increase on the same period of 2019, according to rating agency S&P.

The women working in health and care look after us, it’s time we looked after them (BMJ) Published on: August 26, 2020 | Category: Leadership

The hardships women working in health and care have faced as a result of the covid-19 crisis have the potential to have an extremely damaging long-term effect on these women themselves in the coming months, and the health and care sector as a whole.
But the Health and Care Women Leaders Network, of which I am chair and which is delivered by the NHS Confederation, recently carried out a survey of more than 1,300 women working health and care, and the results of the survey lay bare the burdens, pain and fears women (and we use that term through an intersectional lens) working in health and care have faced.
Indeed, nearly three-quarters reported that their job had a greater negative impact than usual on their emotional wellbeing, and more than half had suffered a negative impact on their physical health.

Many Americans are using the downturn to shore up their finances: AP-NORC poll (CBS News) Published on: August 25, 2020 | Category: Economic Impact

It’s the paradox of a pandemic that has crushed the U.S. economy: 12.9 million people have lost a job and a dangerous rash of businesses have closed, yet the personal finances of many Americans have remained strong — and in some ways have even improved.
In total, about half of Americans say they’ve either saved more or paid down debt since the outbreak began.
About two-thirds say they’re spending less than usual during the pandemic.
About half of Black Americans and roughly 4 in 10 Hispanic Americans say they’ve been unable to pay a bill, compared with just 2 in 10 white Americans.

Before Making Loans, Some Mortgage Lenders Ask, Do You Really Plan to Pay This? (WSJ) Published on: August 25, 2020 | Category: Economic Impact, Global Response

New forms are showing up in some borrowers’ paperwork when they close on their home loan. Lenders are asking them to confirm that they don’t plan to skip their payments, at least not right away.
While the language varies, the forms generally tell borrowers that they won’t be allowed to skip payments until their loans are backed by the government, according to forms reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package Congress passed in the pandemic’s early days allows struggling homeowners to request up to 12 months of forbearance on federally backed home loans, meaning they can temporarily pause their payments and make them up later.

Newer Posts Older Posts