World Coronavirus Dispatch: Japan's Fujitsu to cut office space by 50%

A fifth of German firms fear for their survival, Saudi's haj health measures for domestic pilgrims, UK's 1.5 bn pound lifeline to arts and other pandemic-related news across the globe

One of Japan’s largest employers plans to cut office space by 50 per cent: Fujitsu said it will cut its office space in Japan by half over the next three years, encouraging 80,000 office workers to primarily work from home in what it termed a “Work Life Shift for the new normal.” The move represents a global shift where corporates are giving up offices for a more permanent work-from-home model. Read more here

Let’s look at the global statistics:

Total Confirmed Cases: 11,272,342


Change Over Yesterday: 185,651


Total Deaths: 534,460


Total Recovered: 6,184,146

Nations hit with most cases: US (2,888,729), Brazil (1,603,055), India (697,413), Russia (686,777) and Peru (302,718)

Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center

One fifth of German firms fear for their survival amid pandemic: Around one fifth of German companies (21 per cent) believe their survival is threatened by the coronavirus crisis, Germany’s Ifo institute said on Monday, with travel agents, hotels and restaurants particularly concerned. “We could see a wave of insolvencies in the coming months,” Ifo researcher Stefan Sauer said. Read more here

Saudi Arabia announces haj health measures for domestic pilgrims: Touching the Kaaba, the holiest site in Islam, will be banned during the haj this year, and a social distancing space of a meter and a half between each pilgrim during the rituals including mass prayers and while in the Kaaba circling area will be imposed. Read more here

UK gives 1.5 billion pound lifeline to arts sector: The money, to be shared out between theatres, music venues, heritage sites, museums, galleries and independent cinemas, will be supplemented by 270 million pound of repayable loans. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will also receive funding under the programme. Read more here

World’s largest pension fund lost $165 billion in worst quarter: Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund lost 11 per cent, or $164.7 billion, in the three months ended March. The decline in value was the steepest based on comparable data back to April 2008. Read more here

Two of Pakistan’s top ministers test positive for coronavirus: Health minister Zafar Mirza said in a Twitter post he had isolated himself at home with “mild symptoms.” Last week foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had confirmed he was infected with the virus. Pakistan’s Covid-19 cases have increased manifold since the government eased a lockdown in the second week of May. Read more here

Investments in the Middle East and North Africa surge: Investments in Middle East and North African start-ups jumped 35% per cent during the first half of the year with companies in the UAE raising the bulk of the funding. Companies including cloud kitchen platform Kitopi raised a total of $659 million, with several funding rounds taking place during the coronavirus pandemic. Read more here

Specials

Where the class of 2020 is finding job opportunities
: The pandemic-hit economy has forced new US graduates to dramatically alter their expectations about what their lives and careers will be like. Identifying shifts may be critical for new graduates looking to survive in a market where more than 19.5 million Americans are unemployed, and many companies have stopped hiring or even shut down altogether. Entry-level openings were down 39 per cent since last year as of June 15, with the biggest declines in travel and tourism, IT and marketing and advertising, according to Glassdoor. Read more here

Predictions for the second-half of the pandemic year
: While some gauges of manufacturing and retail sales in major economies are showing improvement, hopes for a V-shaped rebound have been shattered as the reopening of businesses looks shaky at best and job losses risk turning from temporary to permanent. Much depends on the spread of the coronavirus, a vaccine for which remains out of grasp. The WHO warns the worst of the pandemic is still to come as cases top 10 million and deaths have risen beyond 500,000. It’s now likely that global gross domestic product by the end of 2021 will in many cases still be lower than where it was at the end of 2019. Read more here

Why Melbourne’s outbreak worsened?: 
For months Australia has felt optimistic about containing Covid-19, but a resurgence of the virus in Melbourne has put those efforts at a critical stage. Experts pointed out pinpointed the origin of many infections to workers overseeing hotel quarantines breaking the rules. More than 20,000 travellers have gone through 14-day quarantine in the state. Victoria has faced accusations of systemic failures such as guards being improperly trained or not given enough PPE. Read more here

Lockdown lift for online shopping loans: These buy-now-pay-later firms, such as Afterpay in the US, have benefited from a shift to online shopping during the coronavirus crisis in countries including the United States, where state aid has also boosted retail sales. Some investors are now betting shoppers will stay away from stores as coronavirus cases rise again in several countrie. Klarna, Europe’s biggest fintech start-up, said that since March enquiries from retailers who may want to partner with it jumped by 20 per cent. Read more here

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