COVID-19 Monitor

Last Updated:October 15, 2020

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Europe prepares to ease coronavirus lockdowns (FT) Published on: April 5, 2020 | Category: Economic Impact, Global Response

Governments across Europe have begun preparations to ease the lockdowns imposed across much of the continent to contain the coronavirus pandemic, even if restrictions that have paralysed the economy are expected to remain in force for several more weeks.
Angelo Borrelli, head of Italy’s Civil Protection Agency which is in charge of co-ordinating the national response to the outbreak, suggested a “phase two” of the country’s lockdown could begin next month.
“I don’t want to give dates, but between now and May 16 we may have further positive data that suggests we can resume activities and then start phase two,” he said.

The pandemic is breaking down political barriers between provincial and federal governments (CBC) Published on: April 5, 2020 | Category: Canadian Business

Unity of purpose brings former foes together in ways that Canada has not always seen in past crises.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, another regular sparring partner of Trudeau’s, said in a news conference earlier on Thursday that he would “never break ranks” with the prime minister or his fellow premiers in the midst of a crisis.
The political map across the country is not one that should make this kind of collaboration between provincial and federal governments easy.

Inside the Javits Center: New York’s militarized, makeshift hospital (Washington Post) Published on: April 5, 2020 | Category: Global Response

Soldiers in camouflage and civilians in polo shirts lined up for a life-or-death battle: Keeping a potentially deadly virus from overrunning this makeshift hospital inside a 2.1-million-square-foot convention center within the densest, most populous city in America.
A drone with an infrared sensor perched on the entry desk like a robotic raven taking people’s temperatures. In Nanjing, China, the government sent a similar drone flying apartment to apartment to ferret out the sick.
More than 15 city, state and federal agencies — ranging from military engineers to Javits Center carpenters — built the initial 1,000-bed hospital from scratch inside of a week.

In Italy, Going Back to Work May Depend on Having the Right Antibodies (NY Times) Published on: April 4, 2020 | Category: Global Response

Having the right antibodies to the virus in one’s blood — a potential marker of immunity — may soon determine who gets to work and who does not, who is locked down and who is free.
Researchers are uncertain, if hopeful, that antibodies in fact indicate immunity.
The conservative president of the northeastern Veneto region has proposed a special “license” for Italians who possess antibodies that show they have had, and beaten, the virus.

Zoom banned from New York City schools due to privacy and security flaws (Fast Company) Published on: April 4, 2020 | Category: Global Response, Leadership

A few weeks ago, New York City’s 75,000 teachers scrambled to learn how to use videoconferencing services like Zoom as novel coronavirus cases began to rise and schools prepared to close their doors and institute remote learning.
Businesses using Zoom may be able to shrug off such concerns, or hope that government oversight will eventually resolve them. But educators are subject to a more stringent set of rules and parental expectations.

Why America’s $1.3tn car-loan market cannot avoid a pile-up (FT) Published on: April 4, 2020 | Category: Economic Impact

The logic seemed to be clear: you can sleep in your car, but you cannot drive your house to work.
Not only are millions of people being put out of work, but governments are calling for everyone to stay at home to limit the spread of coronavirus.
“We have found that companies can remain in business for a while losing money, but they go out of business very quickly when they lose access to their warehouse lines of credit,” said Amy Martin, senior director at S&P Global Ratings.

European leaders warn coronavirus could lead to the breakup of their union (Washington Post) Published on: April 4, 2020 | Category: Global Response

The coronavirus pandemic, with its simultaneous health and economic crises, is deepening fault lines within Europe in a way some leaders fear could prove to be a final reckoning.
The cohesion of the European Union had been battered by Brexit, bruised by the political fallout from the 2015 migration surge and the 2008 financial crisis, and challenged by rising autocracy in the east that runs contrary to the professed ideals of the European project.
In the early days of the coronavirus outbreak, the response among European Union member states showed that national interests trump more-altruistic European ideals.
Border restrictions were reimposed haphazardly, and Germany and France threw up export bans on medical equipment such as masks and ventilators, even as Italy clamored for assistance.

Canada’s Big Six banks cut credit card interest rates to ease coronavirus impact (Reuters) Published on: April 4, 2020 | Category: Canadian Business, Economic Impact

Canada’s Big Six banks all said they will reduce interest rates on credit cards to provide relief to customers affected by COVID-19 pandemic.
Bank of Montreal said on Saturday it will temporarily reduce credit card interest rates to 10.99% for personal and small business customers receiving payment deferrals due to the outbreak.
Last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government had urged banks to help alleviate the burden credit card interest rates place on Canadians.

China Enters The Next Phase of Its COVID-19 Outbreak: Suppression (NPR) Published on: April 4, 2020 | Category: Global Response

China has driven coronavirus transmission down to nearly zero (although there’s some question among international academics about China’s case reporting and whether some cases are being overlooked, it’s generally agreed that they’ve suppressed transmission to a very low level).
Numbers have dropped dramatically in many parts of China, including Hubei and Chongqing provinces – although newly reported COVID-19 cases are increasing in Beijing, Guangdong, Shanghai and Fujian, largely due to imported cases from travelers.
“Areas where the outbreak was less had movement restrictions removed sooner,” said Kylie Ainslie, a research associate at the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College London. “But that didn’t mean completely. It meant first they started major factories and started letting those people who work there go back to work so that they could restart their industries.”

Food security experts warn of supply shortages, higher prices due to global pandemic (CBC) Published on: April 3, 2020 | Category: Canadian Business, Global Response

Food security experts are warning the global pandemic could lead to supply shortages, higher prices and a growing nutrition gap between rich and poor.
Elaine Power, a food security expert at Queen’s University, said various problems caused by the pandemic — border closures restricting the movement of foreign farm workers, transportation and import bottlenecks, panic hoarding at grocery stores — can all contribute “massively” to higher prices or food shortages.
Even the honeybees normally imported from other countries to pollinate Canadian crops could become harder to source, she said.

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