World Coronavirus Dispatch: Some 38 mn could sink into poverty in East Asia

Democrats present $2.2 trn stimulus plan, surprise surge in pregnancies in Phillippines, UK keeps threat of firmer London Covid as cases soar, and other pandemic-related news across the globe

The pandemic is creating a class of “new poor” across East Asia and the Pacific with 38 million more people expected to sink into poverty in 2020, according to the World Bank. The triple shock of the pandemic, the containment measures and the global recession means the region will grow only 0.9 percent this year, its weakest expansion since 1967 -- and poverty will increase for the first time in 20 years. Read more here

Let’s look at the global statistics:

Total Confirmed Cases: 33,353,614

Change Over Yesterday: 275,077

Total Deaths: 1,001,644

Total Recovered: 23,151,117

Nations hit with most cases: US (7,148,044), India (6,145,291), Brazil (4,745,464), Russia (1,154,299) and Colombia (818,203)

Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center

Warning signs are flashing ahead of Covid’s second US winter: As the seasons turn, there are signs suggesting there will be more deaths and serious illness ahead. Data shows that the number of people hospitalized has plateaued at about 30,000 in the past week, after a decline from nearly 60,000 that began in late July. Deaths, meanwhile, averaged about 750 over the seven days through Sunday. Read more here

Also read: US reports lowest number of Covid-19 deaths in three weeks

UK keeps threat of firmer London Covid rules as cases soar: Boris Johnson’s government raised the prospect of tougher new coronavirus rules in London and large areas of the UK to try to get the resurgent pandemic under control. The government is planning a “total social lockdown” in the coming weeks across much of northern England and potentially the capital, health minister Helen Whately said. Read more here

Surprise pregnancies in Philippines surge amid virus curbs: Unintended pregnancies in the Philippines could spike by almost half to 2.6 million if movement restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic remain until yearend, the United Nations Population Fund said. Quarantine measures are also causing 60 additional maternal deaths a month, the agency said. Read more here

Vietnam’s economic growth accelerates on industry, exports: Vietnam’s economic growth accelerated in the third quarter as exports and manufacturing began recovering from the pandemic-induced slump of the first half of the year. Gross domestic product rose 2.62 percent from a year earlier, up from a revised 0.39 percent in the second quarter. The median estimate was for growth of 2.7 percent. Read more here
 

Lagarde says ECB ready to act as pandemic burdens economy: The European Central Bank is ready to deploy more monetary stimulus to aid the recovery if needed, President Christine Lagarde said. Most economists predict the 1.35 trillion euro ($1.6 trillion) emergency bond-buying program will be expanded this year -- probably in December when new economic forecasts are published. Read more here

Democrats put forth $2.2 trillion stimulus proposal: House Democrats on Monday released a pared-down version of the $3.4 trillion Heroes Act, which was passed by the House in May but never taken up by the Senate, in what’s intended as a “proffer” for Republicans to return to the negotiating table in the final days before lawmakers return home ahead of November’s election. The legislation includes new provisions like aid for airlines and restaurants and more money for schools and childcare. Read more here

Specials 

Low interest rates are worsening retirement prospects worldwide
 

It’s one nasty brew: a long spell of low or negative interest rates, a record level of public debt, a recession, income inequality and climate change. Those are some of the elements affecting the welfare of retirees around the world, and they make the odds of a financially secure retirement ever more remote, according to the 2020 Natixis Global Retirement Index released on Tuesday. The annual report, which ranks 44 countries on retiree wellbeing and financial security, shows Iceland, Switzerland and Norway at the top. The US, at No. 16 among the developed nations studied, moved up two spots on improved measures for quality of life and material wellbeing — but that was based on 2019 data, so it does not include the pandemic-induced spike in unemployment this year. Read more here

Factbox: Prominent people diagnosed with Covid-19
 

Find the complete list here

How to keep the coronavirus at bay indoors: 
 

In poorly ventilated indoor settings, like most restaurants and bars, the virus can remain suspended in the air for long periods and travel distances beyond six feet, Dr. Marr and other researchers said. This summer, scientists isolated live virus from tiny droplets called aerosols floating in the air as far as 16 feet from an infected patient in a hospital. Unless you are living with an infected person — in which case there are guidelines to follow — protecting yourself at home does not particularly require extraordinary measures, Dr. Linsey Marr of Virginia Tech said. Here are some tips 

• Eliminate exposure whenever possible — for example, by encouraging staff to work from home;

• Permit entry only to those who need to be physically present in the building;

• Adopt strategies like adding air filters and disinfecting surfaces;

• Manage the flow of people going through the building — for example, the number of those in elevators at a time;

• Require the use face coverings and other personal protective equipment as appropriate indoors.

Read more here