COVID-19 Monitor

Last Updated:October 15, 2020

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Malls face catastrophic hit in Canada with unpaid rent surging (BNN Bloomberg) Published on: April 27, 2020 | Category: Canadian Business

Canada’s malls are facing a wave of skipped rents and could see vacancy rates triple by year-end, with the coronavirus poised to leave its scars on a fragile retail sector long after the pandemic ends.
Longer term, fear of new outbreaks may only accelerate the shift online — even for movies and restaurants, which had been touted as potential buffers for malls.
The property owner is expected to kick in 25 per cent of the rent, and the tenant the other 25 per cent. The loans will be forgiven if the landlord agrees to lower rent by at least 75 per cent and agrees to not evict a tenant while the program is in place.

N.Y.C. Deaths Reach 6 Times the Normal Level, Far More Than Coronavirus Count Suggests (NY Times) Published on: April 27, 2020 | Category: Global Response

More than 27,000 New Yorkers have died since the start of the novel coronavirus outbreak in March — 20,900 more than would be expected over this period and thousands more than have been captured by official coronavirus death statistics.
But there remains a large gap between this number and the total deaths above typical levels in the last six and a half weeks: more than 4,200 people whose deaths are not captured by the official coronavirus toll.
Even with these high totals, the recent numbers in our charts are most likely an undercount of all deaths in the city.

Pandemic accelerates shift to meat substitutes (FT) Published on: April 26, 2020 | Category: Economic Impact

Plant-based alternative sales jump 200 per cent in US amid slaughterhouse closures.
This compares with jumps of 30 per cent and 39 per cent respectively over the same periods for fresh meat.
Compared with real meat, the production of plant-based protein is also more automated and less reliant on labour, so is less vulnerable to staffing shortages.

How Fed Intervention Saved Carnival (WSJ) Published on: April 26, 2020 | Category: Economic Impact, Global Response

That all changed on March 23 when the Federal Reserve defibrillated bond markets with an unprecedented lending program.
By April 1, the company had raised almost $6 billion in bond markets, paying rates far below those executives had discussed just days earlier.
Carnival may still founder if tourists shun cruises over the long term, and its new debt carries a far heftier price tag than previous offerings.
But the immediate survival of the company, which employs about 150,000 people, is no longer in question.

A pandemic of corruption: $40 masks, questionable contracts, rice-stealing bureaucrats mar coronavirus response (Washington Post) Published on: April 26, 2020 | Category: Global Response

Countries large and small are shelling out trillions of dollars to combat both the coronavirus outbreak and its brutal economic fallout in what analysts are calling the largest financial response ever to a single global crisis.
As governments race to source everything from food aid to face masks, they are prioritizing speed over transparency, dropping competitive bidding and other safeguards to keep pace with the pandemic.
Food aid for struggling workers locked out of their jobs is proving to be a particularly juicy target.

Reopening Has Begun. No One Is Sure What Happens Next. (NY Times) Published on: April 26, 2020 | Category: Global Response

But even under the most optimistic estimates, it will be months, and possibly years, before Americans again crowd into bars and squeeze onto subway cars the way they did before the pandemic struck.
And it isn’t clear what, exactly, it means to gradually restart a system with as many interlocking pieces as the U.S. economy. How can one factory reopen when its suppliers remain shuttered?
The White House released a plan this month for a phased reopening of the economy, with restrictions easing as states meet public health benchmarks.

COVID-19: Ontario’s front-line workers to receive ‘pandemic pay’ increase of $4 an hour (Ottawa Citizen) Published on: April 26, 2020 | Category: Canadian Business

Premier Doug Ford says more than 350,000 front-line workers in the battle against COVID-19 will receive a $4 an hour “pandemic pay” increase.
“It’s our way of saying thank you,” he said at a press conference Saturday.
More than 350,000 workers will be eligible for the extra pay, said the province.

Race for coronavirus vaccine draws billions of dollars worldwide, with focus on speed (Global News) Published on: April 25, 2020 | Category: Global Response

But the traditional rules of drug and vaccine development are being tossed aside in the face of a virus that has infected 2.7 million people, killed more than 192,000 and devastated the global economy.
The overriding consensus among more than 30 drug company executives, government health officials and pandemic-response experts interviewed by Reuters is that the risks are necessary to ensure not only that a vaccine for the new coronavirus is developed quickly, but that it is ready to distribute as soon as it’s approved.
In the United States, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), a federal agency that funds disease-fighting technology, has announced investments of nearly $1 billion to support coronavirus vaccine development and the scale-up of manufacturing for promising candidates.

Investors baffled by soaring stocks in ‘monster’ depression (FT) Published on: April 25, 2020 | Category: Economic Impact, Global Response

The divergence between the flying stock market and the dying economy is so extreme it is leaving many analysts scrambling for explanations.
What was once dismissed as a mere “bear market rally” — often strong but ultimately doomed bounces that can occur in the middle of severe downturns — has now turned into a 23 per cent jump for global stocks.
Analysts and investors say that global efforts by central banks to soothe the financial system have been the trigger.
Throw in various other liquidity injections and a series of government spending packages aimed at ameliorating the effects of measures taken to contain the coronavirus outbreak, and the overall stimulus bill comes to $14tn, according to the IMF.

Driving digital change during a crisis: The chief digital officer and COVID-19 (McKinsey) Published on: April 25, 2020 | Category: Leadership

Chief digital officers play a crucial role in driving the digital changes needed for their organizations to respond to the crisis and prepare for the next normal.
CDOs should be considering how to build in work flexibility to account for employees taking care of kids at home by, for example, shifting schedules; ensure access to resources such as tools and information-sharing intranets; educate less digitally fluent colleagues so they don’t feel overmatched by new demands with, for example, brief training sessions; and have frequent touchpoints such as digital town halls and pulse surveys, to gauge people’s mental and physical well-being.
While the COVID-19 crisis has introduced significant uncertainty about what the future holds, CDOs can help to develop digital strategies based on scenarios detailing customer behavior shifts, business-model opportunities, and their implications on digital and technology choices.

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