World Coronavirus Dispatch: Link between Covid-19, brain damage and stroke

Bain Capital buys Virgin Australia, Bain Capital buys Virgin Australia, Indonesia expands budget and other global news about the pandemic

A preliminary study of patients hospitalised with Covid-19 in the UK has found the disease can damage the brain, causing complications such as stroke, inflammation, psychosis and dementia-like symptoms in some severe cases. The findings are the first detailed look at a,  range of neurological complications of the virus, the researchers said, and underline a need for larger studies to find the mechanisms behind them and assist the search for treatments. Read more here.

Let’s look at the global statistics:

Total Confirmed Cases: 9,430,384

Change Over Yesterday: 180,678

Total Deaths: 489,343

Total Recovered: 4,839,499

Nations hit with most cases: US (2,422,312), Brazil (1,228,114), Russia (613,148), India (490,401) and UK (309,455)

Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center

Bain Capital buys Virgin Australia: Bain Capital will take control of Virgin Australia after seeing off rival bidders for the stricken airline, whose business has been pummelled by the coronavirus pandemic. As a result, Virgin Australia equity holders would be wiped out. Read more here.

Public order incidents increase in England as lockdown eases: In one of southern England’s seaside a “major incident” was declared as thousands flocked to its beaches. In Christchurch, 22 police officers were injured after officers tried to shut down an unlicensed music event in Brixton. More have happened in the recent past. Read more here.

H&M posts first quarterly loss in a decade: The pre-tax loss amounted to $700 million in the three months through May. The sales decline moderated to 25 percent so far this month from 50 percent in the past quarter, and the company said the bounceback is better than expected. Read more here.

Spain to extend salary support until September for 2 mn workers: The Spanish government has agreed to extend the country’s emergency paid leave schemes for an additional three months to the end of September. The temporary schemes, known as ERTEs, was due to expire on June 30 and currently cover more than 2m people. Read more here.

Specials

All that you need to know: How Covid-19 is exacerbating the churn in retailing
 

Brick-and-mortar retailers were in trouble well before the coronavirus pandemic. A shift to online shopping since the turn of the millennium along with rising costs and over-expansion, especially in the US, had already forced many stores to close. The arrival of Covid-19 intensified the struggle to stay in business and accelerated changes in how and where consumers spend their money. Read more here.

Most kids do not get severe Covid-19
 

A large European study confirms a rare bit of good news about Covid-19: children seem to be mostly spared from the worst of its effects. The paper, published June 25 in the Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, suggests well fewer than 1 percent of children who develop COvid-19 will go on to die from it, and the vast majority will not need intensive care. By contrast, in some of the world’s hardest-hit countries, case fatality ratios that include adults are estimated (albeit using preliminary data) to be higher than 10 percent. Read more here.

Long read

A whole new world 

As cities emerge from coronavirus lockdowns (whether it’s happening too soon is another conversation), the way people use parks, stores, restaurants, public transit — you name it — is changing in subtle and dramatic ways, as explained here in Bloomberg CityLab. The need for more space will pose a major design challenge for cramped cities. Read it here.

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