Around the world ....

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A car industry organisation said the country has suffered the biggest drop in car buying in history as new registrations fell by 36% in March compared with the same month a year ago.

The only option to purchase a new car is on the internet since the government launched numerous restrictions in the middle of March.

The Czech Car Importers Association said 13,685 new vehicles were registered in March. It said new motorcycle registrations dropped by 42%.

Car production has been completely halted amid the outbreak.

slovakia

The government has reached an agreement with banks on imposing moratoriums on mortgages and loans to help households and businesses.

Prime Minister Igor Matovic said the deal makes private individuals, self-employed people and small and middle size companies with up to 250 employees eligible to delay payments by up to nine months.

The government has asked people to only use the delay if they need it. Slovakia has 450 positive tests for the coronavirus.

pakistan

Mosques were allowed to remain open yesterday, when Muslims gather for prayers, even as the pandemic spread and much of the country had shut down.

Prime Minister Imran Khan is relying on restricting the size of congregations attending mosques and advice to stay at home from religious groups like the country’s Islamic Ideology Council.

However, some provinces issued their own lockdown orders to prevent Muslims from gathering for Friday prayers.

In eastern Punjab province, where 60% of Pakistan’s 220 million people live, checkpoints have been set up in major cities stopping people from congregating.

singapore

Singapore is to close schools and most workplaces for a month, as it moves to curb the increase in Covid-19 transmissions.

Most workplaces, except for essential services and key economic sectors, will be closed from next Tuesday, and schools will be closed from Wednesday.

Essential services such as food establishments, markets and supermarkets, clinics, hospitals, utilities, transport and banking services will remain open.

“Looking at the trend, I am worried that unless we take further steps, things will get worse, or another big cluster may push things over the edge,” said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. He urged residents to stay at home.

The country has seen a spike in Covid-19 cases over the last two weeks, and has routinely reported more than 50 new cases daily. As of Thursday, Singapore had 1,049 cases and five deaths. france

France’s prime minister said he and his government colleagues are “fighting hour by hour” to ward off shortages of essential drugs used to keep Covid-19 patients alive in intensive care.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said that worldwide usage of essential drugs and disposable equipment, such as ventilator mouthpieces, used by intensive care units is “exploding in unimaginable proportions”, with a “nearly 2,000% increase” in demand “because it is happening everywhere in the world and at the same time”.

In France, medics have identified eight drugs, in particular, that are essential for Intensive Care Units (ICUs) to keep treating the waves of gravely ill Covid-19 patients who need breathing assistance and other forms of life support, he said. Those drugs include painkillers and sedatives.

Mr Philippe said France has sufficient stocks of some of the key ICU drugs but “more limited” quantities of others, causing “real” worry for medics.

Mr Philippe said he, French President Emmanuel Macron and their finance minister have been calling producers to identify supply bottlenecks and source more of these drugs.

“We are fighting hour by hour to respond to this unheard-of increase in usage,” he said.

philippines

The Asian Development Bank has forecast that the coronavirus pandemic will cost the world economy as much as $4.1 trillion, or nearly 5% of all economic activity.

The regional lender said growth in developing Asia would probably fall to 2.2% in 2020 from 5.2% last year.

The Philippines-based bank said that Southeast Asia, a market of more than 600 million that has been rapidly growing, will probably log 1% growth this year.

The report said China, the region’s biggest economy, saw double-digit contractions in business activity in JanuaryFebruary and will probably see growth fall to 2.3% this year from a three-decade low of 6.1% in 2019.

south korea

South Korea said more than 27,000 people are under selfquarantine in the country after it strengthened border controls to slow coronavirus infections linked to international arrivals.

Park Jong-hyun, an official from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, said that 19,567 of those under self-quarantine have recently returned from overseas while another 7,499 were isolated after contacting virus carriers.

South Korea has been enforcing 14-day quarantines on all passengers arriving from overseas since Wednesday, expanding measures that had already been applied to South Korean nationals and long-term stay foreigners coming from Europe and the US.