Coronavirus deaths in Italy overtake China as economic damage mounts
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[March 20, 2020]
By Guy Faulconbridge and James Mackenzie
LONDON/MILAN (Reuters) - The world's
richest nations poured unprecedented aid into the global economy on
Thursday as coronavirus cases ballooned in the new epicentre Europe,
with the number of deaths in Italy outstripping those in mainland China,
where the virus originated.
With over 242,000 infections and nearly 10,000 deaths, the epidemic has
stunned the world and drawn comparisons with painful periods such as
World War Two, the 2008 financial crisis and the 1918 Spanish flu.
U.N. chief Antonio Guterres warned that a global recession, "perhaps of
record dimensions", was a near certainty.
"This is a moment that demands coordinated, decisive, and innovative
policy action from the world's leading economies," Guterres told
reporters via a video conference. "We are in an unprecedented situation
and the normal rules no longer apply."
Tourism and airlines have been particularly battered, as the world's
citizens hunker down to minimize contact and curb the spread of the
highly contagious COVID-19 respiratory illness. But few sectors have
been spared by a crisis threatening a lengthy global recession.
The United States is urging Americans not to travel abroad at all and
could announce restrictions at the U.S.-Mexican border on Friday. They
would be similar to the closure of the U.S.-Canada border to
non-essential traffic.
Markets have suffered routs unseen since the 2008 financial debacle,
with investors rushing to the U.S. dollar as a safe haven. Wall Street
tried to bounce back on Thursday. The benchmark S&P 500 <.SPX> closed up
0.5%, still around 30% off highs reached last month. U.S. oil prices
posted their largest one-day gain ever, rising 25%. [.N] [O/R]
Policymakers in the United States, Europe and Asia have slashed interest
rates and opened liquidity taps to try to stabilise economies hit by
quarantined consumers, broken supply chains, disrupted transport and
paralysed businesses.
The virus, thought to have originated from wildlife in mainland China
late last year, has jumped to 172 other nations and territories with
more than 20,000 new cases reported in the past 24 hours - a new daily
record.
Cases in Germany, Iran and Spain rose to more than 12,000 each. An
official in Tehran tweeted that the coronavirus was killing one person
every 10 minutes.
Interactive graphic tracking global spread of coronavirus https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7
LONDON LOCKDOWN?
Britain, which has reported 144 deaths, was closing dozens of
underground stations in London and ordering schools shut from Friday.
Some 20,000 soldiers were on standby, Queen Elizabeth headed for
sanctuary in the ancient castle of Windsor, and the Tower of London was
to close along with other historic buildings.
"Many of us will need to find new ways of staying in touch with each
other and making sure that loved ones are safe," the 93-year-old monarch
said in an address to the nation.
"I am certain we are up to that challenge," she added.
Italian soldiers transported corpses overnight from an overwhelmed
cemetery in Europe's worst-hit nation where 3,405 people have died, more
than in mainland China. Germany's military was also preparing to help.
Supermarkets in many countries were besieged with shoppers stocking up
on food staples and hygiene products. Some rationed sales and fixed
special hours for the elderly, who are particularly vulnerable to severe
illness.
Solidarity projects were springing up in some of the world's poorest
corners. In Kenya's Kibera slum, volunteers with plastic drums of water
and boxes of soap on motorbikes set up handwashing stations for people
without clean water.
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A health worker wearing a protective suit sprays disinfectant
outside of a building during an awareness campaign for coronavirus
disease (COVID-19), in Jalalabad, Afghanistan March 19, 2020.
REUTERS/Parwiz
Russia reported its first coronavirus death on Thursday.
Amid the gloom, China provided a ray of hope as it reported zero new
local transmissions of the virus, a sign of success for its
draconian containment policies since January. Imported cases
accounted for all 34 new infections in China.
In the United States, where President Donald Trump had initially
played down the coronavirus threat, infections surged with over
11,500 known cases and at least 186 deaths.
Trump has infuriated Beijing's Communist Party rulers by rebuking it
for not acting faster and drawn accusations of racism by referring
to COVID-19 as the "Chinese virus".
“We continue our relentless effort to defeat the Chinese virus," he
said in opening remarks at a briefing on Thursday.
The head of the U.S. National Guard said tens of thousands of its
troops could be activated to help U.S. states deal with the outbreak
now in all 50 states.
MOTOWN SHUTS CAR PLANTS
In a bewildering raft of financial measures around the world, the
European Central Bank launched new bond purchases worth 750 billion
euros ($817 billion). That brought some relief to bond markets and
also halted European shares' slide.
The U.S. Federal Reserve rolled out its third emergency credit
programme in two days, aimed at keeping the $3.8 trillion money
market mutual fund industry functioning. The Bank of England cut
interest rates to 0.1%, its second emergency rate cut in just over a
week.
China was to unleash trillions of yuan of fiscal stimulus and South
Korea pledged 50 trillion won ($39 billion).
The desperate state of industry was writ large in Detroit, where the
big three automakers - Ford Motor Co <F.N>, General Motors Co <GM.N>
and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV <FCHA.MI> <FCAU.N> - were shutting
U.S. plants, as well as factories in Canada and Mexico. Some
automakers have pledged to help manufacture much needed medical
supplies.
With some economists fearing prolonged pain akin to the 1930s Great
Depression and others anticipating a bounceback, gloomy data and
forecasts abounded.
In one of the most dire calls, J.P. Morgan economists forecast the
Chinese economy to drop more than 40% this quarter and the U.S.
economy to shrink 14% in the next. Ratings agency Moody's prepared
for mass downgradings.
In Britain, small gin distilleries have started producing hand
sanitizer amid a national shortage, a trend mirrored across the
globe from Australia to the United States.
And Monaco cancelled its showcase Formula One Grand Prix, the most
famous and glamorous race on the calendar, in another high-profile
sporting casualty of the epidemic.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaux around the world; Writing by Marius
Zaharia, Andrew Cawthorne, Nick Macfie and Lisa Shumaker; Editing by
Mark Heinrich and Bill Berkrot)
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