Weekly review of the coronavirus situation across the world

BySergiu Ipatii

Weekly review of the coronavirus situation across the world

(March 25 – April 1, 2020)

The past seven days have been the most dramatic in terms of COVID-19 new cases so far. Since the last DevelopmentAid weekly review released on March 25th, the number of infected people has more than doubled, reaching over 750,000 people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. China, where the outbreak began in late 2019, is no longer the country with the most COVID-19 cases. As of today, the United States of America heads this sad statistic with over 160,000 COVID-19 positive patients – more than a fifth of the global number.

Italy, Spain, Germany and France have also registered significant new coronavirus cases during the last seven days. Along with the US, they account for almost 500,000 COVID-19 patients, according to the Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases mapping by Johns Hopkins University. The same source indicates that 178,000 COVID-19 patients worldwide have recovered from the infection (+70,000 recoveries since last week’s report). At the same time, COVID-19 has caused the death of almost 42,000 people.

This extremely rapid increase in the number of patients puts immense pressure on health facilities and health workers, threatening to leave some health systems overstretched and unable to operate effectively, according to the World Health Organization Director General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. As a response to the spread of the disease, Governments across the world have implemented stay-at-home orders and quarantine controls. Thus, EU countries are under lockdown with those restrictions in place until mid-April while 30 states in the US have also implemented orders to stay-at-home.

Global response to the COVID-19 pandemic

The economic impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic is still hard to predict. However, across industry, experts predict a severe detrimental effect to services, the closure of borders and a decrease in trade. However, countries are responding to the crisis in innovative and unique ways and they can learn from each other. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has created a website that provides information on how individual countries are dealing with the practical problems they are encountering.

In a March 30 statement, the UN called for $1 trillion of debts owed by developing countries to be cancelled in 2020 as part of the $2.5 trillion coronavirus crisis package for those countries. The agency also proposed $1 trillion to be made available through the extended use of special drawing rights and another $500 billion needed to fund a Marshall Plan for health recovery and to be dispersed as grants.

A few days before the UN statement was made, the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund called on all official bilateral creditors to suspend debt payments from IDA countries that requested forbearance. This move is designed to “help with IDA countries’ immediate liquidity needs to tackle challenges posed by the coronavirus outbreak and allow time for an assessment of the crisis impact and financing needs for each country”. Currently, 76 countries are eligible to receive IDA funds.

Another important aspect which is being actively discussed worldwide is the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on labor. Many developing countries rely heavily on remittances from migrants working abroad. At the same time, there are a lot of workers employed within the informal economies of those countries. The International Labor Organization underlines that “in adopting short-term responses to the crisis, urgent attention should be devoted to protecting low-income households”. Patrick Belser, ILO Senior Economist, believes that “income support could be extended through non-contributory social security schemes or existing cash transfer programs. Support could also be offered temporarily to informal enterprises”.

With over 150 countries closing schools in order to prevent children from catching the novel coronavirus, the development community has acted quickly to maintain access to learning. Thus, the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) has announced a US $8.8 million contribution to UNICEF to help children and young people in 87 developing countries access learning opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Another important announcement has been issued by the International Olympic Committee. The 2020 Summer Olympics, which were due to take place in Japan, have been postponed for the first time since 1944. The reason for this decision is, of course, the global COVID-19 pandemic.

[Read: How the international community can fight COVID-19 pandemic

Alain Mante, consultant: Reproduce the information in all languages, including local languages and vernacular dialects, the classic barrier diagrams and illustrations.  Particular attention must be given to the most disadvantaged populations, women in particular including girls and women with disabilities, pregnant women and the increased risk of domestic violence in the event of confinement.]   

The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has issued a $2 billion appeal to combat COVID-19. The plan is expected to be implemented by UN agencies with international NGOs and NGO consortiums playing a direct role in the response.

DevelopmentAid will publish the next Weekly Review of the coronavirus situation across the world on April 8. Subscribe to our newsletter and learn more about the coronavirus outbreak and the efforts being made to tackle it by the international development community.

About COVID-2019

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that are common in many different species of animals including camels, cattle, cats and bats. Rarely, animal coronaviruses can infect people and then spread between them such as was the case with MERS (2012) and SARS (2003).The symptoms of the virus are very similar to those of a common cold – runny nose, headache, cough, sore throat, fever, a general feeling of being unwell. Blood tests are necessary in order to prove the presence of the virus in the organism.

Named by scientists as the “Wuhan seafood market pneumonia virus”,  COVID-19 is a coronavirus, like MERS and SARs, all of which have their origins in bats. Initial reports show that, in the early stages of the outbreak (early January 2020), many of those infected in Wuhan had some link to a large seafood and live animal market – the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, mainly its western wing where wildlife animals are traded. This suggests that the virus initially affected an animal and subsequently spread to a person in a what a CDC has called “the species barrier jump”.