ISA Coronavirus Update (25th of August)

Daily Summary

The number of cases of the coronavirus worldwide rose to almost 24 million this week, with the number of fatalities connected to the pandemic now standing at more than 817,000.

More than 460,000 new cases of the coronavirus were found in India over the past seven days.  Meanwhile, the number of new cases being diagnosed in Latin America also remained very high.

The number of coronavirus cases across much of Europe continued to trend upwards in recent days, reaching their highest levels since the height of the first wave of the pandemic during the early spring. This was due in large part to the resumption of travel in the region and growing lockdown fatigue.

The government of South Korea mandated a series of new social distancing measures as that country faced a new spike in the number of coronavirus cases that have been found there in recent days. Cases have been discovered in most areas of South Korea in recent weeks.

Since the massive explosion in the port of Beirut earlier this month, the number of cases of the coronavirus in Lebanon has more than doubled, forcing the government there to enact new lockdown measures at a time when the economy of Lebanon is in freefall.

Key Developments

Latin American Economies Suffer Big Losses: Latin American countries have not only endured some of the highest numbers of coronavirus cases in the world, but they have also suffered some of the largest economic declines so far this year as lockdowns shut down economic activity.

The First Known Re-Infection Case: Scientists in Hong Kong announced that they had found the first confirmed case of a person who had been infected by the coronavirus on two separate occasions. The 33-year-old man was first infected in March, only to be infected again earlier this month.

Trend to Watch

Testing levels for the coronavirus in the United States are now significantly higher than that of most other large countries. In contrast, testing levels in other parts of the world have not risen as fast as had been hoped, meaning that many cases are being missed.

The Coming Days

A number of major economies (India, Brazil, Canada, Australia and others) will release their second quarter GDP results over the next week, and the results for each of these countries are expected to be quite poor, even in once fast-growing economies like India