The coronavirus, COVID-19, is decimating the US as the US President, Donald Trump remains determined to get the country back to work, “pretty quickly”. The president does not believe the numbers being projected are accurate, however, his own Task Force team member Anthony S. Fauci said Sunday that the nation could record 100,000 to 200,000 deaths and millions of infections, according to evolving projections.
Deborah Birx, another member of the task force offered a similarly grim assessment: “No state, no metro area, will be spared.” As it stands, there are more than 2,200 coronavirus-related deaths and 130,000 confirmed cases in the United States.
As for news from around the world here are some significant developments, selected from the Washington Post:
- Britain could take six months or more to return to “normal,” a health official said.
- Italy reported a slight decline in deaths on Sunday, with 756 dead in the past 24 hours, raising the country’s total to 10,799. There are more than 32,000 covid-related fatalities worldwide.
- War-ravaged Syria reported its first death from the coronavirus, a woman who died as soon as she arrived in an ambulance at a hospital in an unspecified location, according to the Syrian state news agency SANA.
- Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee (D) said Sunday that he would not lift his statewide stay-at-home order if Trump enacts his plan to categorize places by risk levels for covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
In Russia’s most restrictive coronavirus-related measure yet, Moscow will enact a citywide quarantine starting Monday, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced. The stay-at-home order for all residents comes as the Russian capital’s confirmed novel coronavirus cases surpassed 1,000 over the weekend — roughly two-thirds of the country’s total. Eight people have died.
- Japan is seeing a sudden acceleration in coronavirus cases, while President Hassan Rouhani warned his fellow Iranians that the novel coronavirus could linger in their country for up to two years.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi apologized for the handling of the lockdown in India.
Market implications
This is an economic tsunami yet stock markets, are so far, holding within correction territory while the outlooks from the US president and China are more optimistic than most. The S&P 500 was ending down by over 3% on Friday but held in a significant support structure as Trump looks to ease nationwide guidelines in the pursuit of a stronger economy, China appears to have successfully dampened the rate of new infections in Wuhan.
Meanwhile, the government of Hubei, the province that is home to Wuhan is removing travel restrictions and will allow residents, except those in Wuhan, to again move freely. Moreover, places like Shenzhen, which is the manufacturing hub in the south, and Hangzhou, a tech hot spot on the east coast, residents are reporting that the restaurants and malls are starting to refill. Markets are forward looking and are pricing in such headlines.
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