Geo-political news
COVID-19 – On the agenda for many European leaders this week was how and when they would go about reducing lockdown restrictions in place. UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, announced that the UK was showing very promising signs and that it had past the peak of the initial wave of the coronavirus. PM Johnson plans to unveil a comprehensive plan outlining the process of easing the UK out of lockdown sometime next week. Elsewhere in Europe, Germany has announced it will allow playgrounds, zoo’s, museums and churches to reopen, although most of its restrictions will continue to stay in place. The debate continues to grow around when the right time to open economies is, against health impacts from premature
easing measures may have. This comes as the European Central Bank announced that the Eurozone economy is unlikely to grow back to last years level until as late as 2022, despite predicting a likely rebound
in the second half of 2020.
Elsewhere, over in the US, government officials face an ever-mounting task as states and cities alone are seeking $1 trillion in the next coronavirus relief package. The enormous pressure on US states to reopen was highlighted as further jobless claims took the total to 30 million in the past 6 weeks, totalling more than 18.4% of the working age population. Some states within America are planning to reopen despite warnings from individuals such as Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who stated “you can’t just leap over things to a situation where you’re really tempting (the virus) to rebound”.
Despite figures suggesting the state of New York has passed the peak, Kansas, Virginia and Arizona all reported record number of cases. The US has now reached 1,054,261 confirmed cases, accounting for around one third of all cases globally.
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