Japan set for deepest recession since war
TOKYO — Japan’s economy shrank for a second straight quarter in the January-March period and entered a technical recession, putting the nation on course for its deepest postwar slump as the coronavirus crisis ravages businesses and consumers.
The world’s third-largest economy contracted an annualized 3.4 percent in the first quarter, preliminary official GDP data showed, less than a median market forecast for a 4.6 percent drop.
Japanese Economic Revitalization Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said on Monday that the downside effects of the coronavirus pandemic on Japan’s economy are expected to get worse.
The economy will “slow down to a considerable extent for the time being”, Nishimura said.
Meanwhile, Japanese doctors on the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic face tough working conditions, with many reusing masks and few getting hazard pay, a survey by a labor union showed.
The survey found 31 percent of doctors reusing N95 respirator masks, which are essential for protecting healthcare workers from contagion and are meant to be discarded after one use.
As of Tuesday morning, Japan had reported 16,367 cases and 768 deaths.
In Myanmar, China’s CITIC Group on Tuesday donated protective equipment for the fight against COVID-19 in the town of Kyaukpyu town in Rakhine state, including 25,600 medical masks, 350 pieces of personal protective equipment and 650 face shields.
The local facility quarantine centers are in need of such medical supplies and this donation will be a great help in the COVID-19 fight, said U Aye San, a member of a donation committee in Kyaukpyu.
In the Middle East, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday announced a four-day lockdown in all 81 provinces in the country over May 23-26, which coincides with Eid al-Fitr, a Muslim feast marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
The total infections in Turkey rose to 150,593 on Monday, while the death toll surged to 4,171.
Meanwhile, Israeli researchers have found that more than 70 percent of the coronavirus patients in the country had been infected with a strain originating in the United States, Tel Aviv University said on Monday.
The study was based on a largescale genomic sequencing of the novel coronavirus strain, comparing the genomic sequences of 200 local patients to some 4,700 genomic sequences taken from patients worldwide.
In the Pacific region, children in New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, will return to school full-time next week, a major step toward normalizing life amid the coronavirus pandemic, as the nation on Tuesday recorded its 100th fatality from the disease.
Australia’s states and territories are beginning to allow more public activity under a three-step federal government plan to end two months of shutdowns.