ISA Coronavirus Update (15th of April)

Daily Summary

The number of diagnosed cases of the coronavirus (Covid-19) around the world surpassed the two million mark, while the number of fatalities rose to more than 127,000.

An increasing share of the coronavirus cases that have been discovered in recent days have come from developing countries that are not in a position to be able to handle a major increase in coronavirus cases.  Worse, most of these countries have little capacity for testing for the virus, making it difficult to assess the true scale of the outbreaks in many countries.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he was considering the deployment of Russia’s armed forces to help to deal with that country’s worsening coronavirus outbreak.  The number of cases of the coronavirus in Russia has tripled over the past week and now stands at more than 24,000, with a high percentage of the diagnosed cases having been found in Moscow.

Over the past week, some of the highest increases in the number of diagnosed cases of the coronavirus have been found in South America.  In addition to Brazil (25,700 cases), there has been a surge in the number of cases in countries such as Peru (10,300 cases), Chile (7,900) and Ecuador (7,600).

Key Developments

Trump Cuts Funding to the WHO: United States President Donald Trump suspended US funding for the World Health Organization (WHO) while criticizing its handling of this crisis.  The US accounts for 31% of the annual funding for the WHO.

South Korea Holds Parliamentary Elections: Voters went to the polls in South Korea to vote in parliamentary elections.  There were extraordinary measures taken to allow these elections to be held during the pandemic, including temperature checks on voters, staggered voting times and much early voting.

Trend to Watch

Presidents and prime ministers normally see their approval ratings surge upwards in times of crisis, and that was the case in the early weeks of this crisis.  However, for many world leaders, this surge has already begun to dissipate as voter anger mounts.

The Coming Days

The epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in Europe has moved to France and the United Kingdom, two countries that are woefully behind in terms of testing.  The peak of this wave of the pandemic in these two countries is expected in the coming days.