(April 22 – 28, 2020)
For the second week in a row, the number of new COVID-19 patients globally is around 500,000 with some countries and regions registering a fragile flattening of the curve while others still face an increasing number of new cases. This week, the total number of COVID-19 patients has reached the 3 million mark and, at the same time, the death toll has risen to over 210,000 with more than 920,000 people having recovered from the disease.
Nearly one third of those affected by COVID-19 are from the United States where the first case was registered on January 20, 2020 in Snohomish County, Washington. Since then, almost 1 million Americans have become infected putting the health systems in all 50 states under immense pressure with over 5.7 million tests done.
However, the coronavirus situation in the US continues to attract international attention not only because of its grim statistics. The US is one of the biggest suppliers and consumers of medical goods. With the ongoing pandemic, there have been reports by the media and even some European officials regarding aggressive procurement practices by the US and purchasing agents from other countries. The increasing demand for personal protective equipment has led to what some call “the law of the jungle” in international trade.
One of the reasons for this is the growing number of export restrictions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a recent report by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), over 80 states have temporarily introduced export bans on various goods ranging from medical equipment to food. This situation, however, is of “concern” to the WTO because transparency at the multilateral level is lacking with only 39 members informing the organization of the restrictions they have put in place.
The international community expects the coronavirus pandemic to cause a massive shockwave to the world economy, affecting developing countries in particular. Substantially lower commodity prices over 2020 will be one of the effects felt with crude oil and metal prices having already plunged by 50% between January and March. Thereafter, prices reached an historic low in April with some benchmarks trading at negative levels. The World Bank expects an average price of $35 per barrel in 2020, “a sharp downward revision from the October forecast and a 43% drop from the 2019 average of $61 per barrel”.
“This enormous shock to commodity markets and low oil prices could deliver a serious setback to developing economies and jeopardize the necessary investments in critical infrastructure that support long term growth and create quality jobs,” Makhtar Diop, World Bank Vice President for Infrastructure.
The World Bank (WB) also anticipates a 20% decrease in global remittances. The plunge is due to the drop in the wages and employment of migrant workers on whose remittances developing economies are reported to heavily rely upon.
The world fights back
The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has announced its readiness to provide support worth €21 billion over the 2020-21 period. The organization will “devote its entire activities to responding to the economic impact of the pandemic”. EBRD shareholders have agreed that the emergency funding will target all sectors of the economy with particular emphasis “on those badly hit by the crisis, including financial institutions, SMEs and corporate sectors such as tourism and hospitality, automotive and transport providers, agribusiness and medical supplies”.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has released a ten-point action plan to help industries involved in the movement of goods to keep free-flowing trade afloat during the COVID-19 crisis and its aftermath. The 10 policy measures cover maritime transport, customs operations, transit, transparency and legal issues, as well as technology to enhance paperless trade processes with the focus being on uninterrupted shipping, keeping ports open, protecting the international trade of critical goods and speeding up customs clearance and trade facilitation.
Another important announcement was issued from Geneva where, on April 24 during a virtual event hosted by the World Health Organization, state leaders made public an unprecedented commitment to work together to accelerate the development and production of new vaccines, tests and treatments for COVID-19 and ensure equitable access worldwide.
“Since January, WHO has been working with researchers from hundreds of institutions to develop and test vaccines, standardize assays and standardize regulatory approaches on innovative trial designs and define criteria to prioritize vaccine candidates. The Organization has prequalified diagnostics that are being used all over the world, and more are in the pipeline.”
Currently, the WHO is coordinating a global trial to assess the safety and efficacy of four therapeutic medications against COVID-19.
Since the launch of the UN Rapid Response Facility a month ago, 83 countries have benefited from US$23.3 million in committed resources. Support enabled by the facility includes the purchase of essential medicines for patients, personal protective gear for healthcare workers, testing supplies and local initiatives that aim to raise awareness and engage communities regarding the risk of COVID-19.
In Europe, the European Commission (EC) will help ten neighborhood partners to limit the economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. A €3 billion macro-financial assistance (MFA) package will be distributed among the following countries: the Republic of Albania (€180 million), Bosnia and Herzegovina (€250 million), Georgia (€150 million), the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (€200 million), Kosovo (€100 million), the Republic of Moldova (€100 million), Montenegro (€60 million), the Republic of North Macedonia (€160 million), the Republic of Tunisia (€600 million) and Ukraine (€1.2 billion).
The funds will be made available for 12 months in the form of loans.
DevelopmentAid offers its members access to complete coverage of the international development sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. In April, all COVID-19 related tenders and grants are publicly available without any restrictions, at this link.
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”.
