World coronavirus dispatch: Trump wants US to open even if people get sick

From Russian doctors falling mysteriously from hospital windows, to Uber laying off 14 per cent workforce, and Pfizer's human trial of vaccine - read these and more in today's world dispatch

Economic projections for Europe seem rather grim. The European Union’s economy is set to shrink by 7.4 per cent this year. While investment is expected to collapse, unemployment rates, debt and deficits are could balloon, the Commission said Wednesday. Experts also question the long-term stability of the euro, which has already faced pressure due to Brexit.

Let’s look at the global statistics:

Total confirmed cases: 3,680,376

Change over previous day: 78,616

Total deaths: 257,906           

Total recovered: 1,207,548

Nations hit with most cases: The US (1,204,475), Spain (219,329), Italy (213,013), the UK (196,243) and France (170,694).

Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center

Trump says America should reopen even if more people get sick: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that Americans should begin returning to everyday life even if it led to more sickness and death from the pandemic. He said the US was preparing for “phase two” of the response. That would include disbanding the White House task force of public health experts steering the government response to the outbreak, including Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx. Read more here.

In three separate incidents, Russian doctors fall from hospital windows after PPE shortage complaints: Two Russian doctors have died and one remains in the intensive care unit in serious condition after falling out of windows in hospitals under mysterious circumstances. The tragic incidents made national headlines, with media reports saying all three had come under pressure from superiors over working conditions amid the coronavirus pandemic. Read more here.

Pfizer begins human trials: Drug major Pfizer has administered the first US patients with its experimental vaccines to fight coronavirus. The trials are being conducted at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Read more here.

Disney sets out $1.4-bn hit from coronavirus crisis: Disney on Tuesday scrapped guidance for the rest of the year and suspended its dividend while revealing the coronavirus crisis had wiped as much as $1.4 bn off its quarterly operating profit. It reported that its net income for the three months ended March dropped 91 per cent to $475 million. Read more here.

Uber is laying off 14 per cent workforce: In an SEC filing, Uber disclosed plans to lay off 3,700 employees, or 14 per cent of its global workforce. In the document, the company states that the job loss is part of a planned reduction in operating expenses, “in response to the economic challenges and uncertainty resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on the company’s business”. Read more here.

Specials

How coronavirus helped China pull ahead in the 5G race: The Covid-19 crisis has surprisingly turned out to be a big opportunity for China to quickly test a lot of 5G applications, including drones, driverless cars, unmanned stores and even 5G phones, which no one knew how to use effectively until last year. In addition, newly deployed 5G networks have helped online education providers broadcast more than 1.57 million classes, while teachers have conducted exams remotely using cloud computing in several Beijing high schools. Read more here.

What a socially distant factory floor looks like: Bloomberg was given access to the Airbus plant at Broughton last week to see how the company was adapting its processes during the pandemic. Each inch of the floor is digitally re-designed to ensure social distancing. Workers enter through a sanitisation tent and must maintain a two-metre gap everywhere in the complex. The canteen resembles a college examination hall, with people sitting at widely spaced desks. See it here.

Everything to know about Covid-19 antibody tests: An antibody test is not used to detect whether you currently have Covid-19. It's to find out if you've been exposed to SARS-CoV-2 and already developed an immune response. If you have caught the virus — no matter whether you experienced a flu-like illness recently or have not even felt sick — your body will have produced proteins called antibodies to fight it off. The finger-prick blood test will detect these antibodies. Get all your questions answered here.