World Coronavirus Dispatch: Is inflation measuring distorted in pandemic?

UK to donate over 100 mn vaccines, Japan's birthrate falls to record low, and other pandemic-related news across the globe

UK to donate more than 100 million vaccines

The UK government will donate more than 100 million coronavirus vaccine doses to developing countries, the Sunday Times reported. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to pledge to donate more than $2.8 billion worth of shots at a summit of leaders of the Group of Seven nations starting Friday in the UK and promise more next year. On Saturday, Johnson said he would push the G-7 to commit to vaccinating the entire world by the end of 2022. “We have a responsibility to do everything we can to defeat Covid around the world,” Johnson wrote in a Tweet. Read here

Let's look at the global statistics

Global infections: 172,991,926

Global deaths: 3,721,829

Vaccine doses administered: 2,081,731,936

Nations with most cases: US (33,357,240), India (28,809,339), Brazil (16,907,425), France (5,769,291), Turkey (5,282,594).

Source: John Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center

Philippines bars nurses from working abroad

The Filipino government suspended sending nurses and their aides and assistants abroad, as it seeks to bolster its healthcare system with coronavirus cases spiking. The Philippines, which sends thousands of medical staff overseas to work every year, added 6,955 cases on Saturday, bringing the total to more than 1.2 million. The processing of permits for the medical workers has been suspended immediately, Bernard Olalia, the head of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration said in a statement. Read here

How do you measure inflation during a pandemic?

How do you measure the effect of rising prices when normal consumption patterns have been completely upended by a global pandemic? Statistical authorities typically use a basket of goods and services to monitor the amount spent on everyday goods but also on items such as restaurant visits and flights — consumption that has been massively reduced by the pandemic restrictions. How these items are weighted can seriously distort the reading. In the eurozone for example, weightings are updated each January, so this year’s calculation will give less importance to items such as petrol, hotels and restaurants that were hit by lockdowns last year. This means that even if consumers revert to pre-pandemic spending patterns, official statistics will underestimate spending in these areas. Read here

Japan's birthrate falls to record low amid Covid

The number of babies born in Japan fell to a record low of 840,832 in 2020, making it the lowest level since the country's health ministry started taking such surveys in 1899. The data revealed that the rapid aging trend of the nation's population is accelerating amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Analysts predict the impact of the pandemic on child births will become more severe in 2021, with the number of newborns from January to March this year dropping 9.2 per cent from a year earlier, based on preliminary figures. Read here