Economic damage mounts as global infections top two million
● Millions still wary as some restrictions are lifted in parts of China and Europe
Confirmed cases of coronavirus have now passed two million globally as countries across the world attempted to fight back yesterday by starting the gradual re-opening of stores.
Covid-19 has now killed more than 130,000 worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The figures understate the true size of the crisis, in part because of limited testing, different ways of counting the dead and concealment by some governments
The US has reported about 27,000 deaths – the highest in the world – and more than 600,000 confirmed infections, by Johns Hopkins’ count.
The latest unwanted milestones came as US Government relief checks began arriving in Americans’ bank accounts as the economic damage to American from coronavirus piled up.
Sluggish sales at re-opened stores in Europe and China made it clear that business would not necessarily bounce right back when the crisis eases.
With lockdowns and other restrictions bringing factories to a shuddering halt, American industrial output shrivelled last month, registering its biggest decline since the US demobilised in 1946 at the end of the Second World War.
The world’s biggest economy began issuing one-time payments this week to tens of millions of people as part of its $2.2 trillion (£1.75tn) coronavirus relief package, with adults receiving up to $1,200 each and $500 per child to help them the rent or cover other bills.
The checks will be directly deposited into bank accounts or mailed to households, depending on how they filed their tax returns in the past.
Meanwhile, the first steps in lifting the economically crippling restrictions in other parts of the world were running into resistance, with shoppers and other customers staying away and workers afraid the newly restored freedoms could put their health at risk.
In China, millions are still wary of spending much or even going out. Some cities have resorted to handing out shopping vouchers and trying to reassure consumers by showing officials in state media eating in restaurants.
In Austria, Marie Froehlich, who owns a clothing store in downtown Vienna, said her staff were happy to get back to work after weeks of being cooped up at home.
But with her business dependent largely on tourism, which has dried up amid the travel restrictions, she expects it will take months to return to normal.
“Until then, we are in crisis mode,” she said.
The scene was similar in hard-hit Italy where the streets of Rome were largely deserted despite an easing of restrictions this week that allowed some stores to reopen.
Around the world, the economic damage from the effort to “flatten the curve” of infections has mounted alarmingly.
Signifying a huge shift in consumer behaviour, grocery store sales in the US jumped nearly 26 per cent as Americans stocked up on food and consumer goods to ride out the crisis, while auto sales plummeted by one-quarter and clothing store sales slid by more than half, the government reported.
The category that mostly includes online shopping rose more than 3 per cent.
A day after New York City added nearly 4,000 deaths to its toll, in part by counting people who were believed to have the virus, but were never tested before they died, liberal Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio said he intended to move cautiously.
The European Union echoed such concerns even as it published a 16-page road map plotting a united course out of the crisis for the 27 nations. The EU warned that “any level of gradual relaxation of the confinement will unavoidably lead to a corresponding increase in new cases”.