ISA Coronavirus Update (10th of August)

Daily Summary

The number of known coronavirus cases around the world surpassed 20 million, just 45 days after the ten million mark was surpassed. At the same time, the number of deaths linked to the coronavirus surpassed 734,000.

The number of coronavirus cases in Brazil surpassed three million this week, while the death toll surpassed 100,000. The two figures now stand at 3,035,000 and 101,136. While both the number of new cases and the number of new fatalities have stabilized in recent weeks, they remain dangerously high.

Australia, which has managed the pandemic better than most countries, has seen the number of deaths from the coronavirus rise in recent days as the outbreak in the state of Victoria continues.  However, the number of new cases in that state has fallen in recent days due to strict lockdown measures.

A number of European countries have seen their number of new coronavirus cases rise steadily over the past couple of weeks. While not as high as during the initial wave of the pandemic, there are fears that these new cases could signal the beginning of a second wave across that region.

While the official data on coronavirus cases in Central Asia is highly unreliable, reports on the ground in the region suggest that the number of coronavirus cases there has risen dramatically in recent weeks.

Key Developments

Southeast Asian Economic Troubles: Four Southeast Asian countries (Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines) have released their second quarter GDP results so far, and in most cases, the numbers have been much worse than expected, especially in the Philippines.

The Debate Over Schools Reopening: While the debate over reopening schools in the United States has led to some school systems there announcing that students will not have to physically attend class, schools in other parts of the world are planning on reopening in the coming weeks.

Trend to Watch

European countries are becoming increasingly concerned that the rising number of cases in that region will accelerate as a result of the summer holidays and growing fatigue with the social distancing measures that have been put in place across Europe.

The Coming Days

Despite some better-than-expected economic data in some countries in recent weeks, prospects for a V-shaped recovery for the global economy are likely over-optimistic as the pandemic is still causing far too many disruptions to allow for a full-speed recovery.