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U.S. Deaths Could Reach 200,000; Spain Toll Rises: Virus Update

For a second straight day, Italy reported fewer deaths. Spain had its most daily deaths so far.

U.S. Deaths Could Reach 200,000; Spain Toll Rises: Virus Update
A person walks through an empty food court at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York, U.S. (Photographer: Angus Mordant/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) --

A top U.S. infectious disease scientist said U.S. deaths could reach 200,000, but called it a moving target. New York’s fatalities neared 1,000, more than a third of the U.S. total.

For a second straight day, Italy reported fewer deaths. Spain had its most daily deaths so far. Moscow told city residents to stay home.

A longtime senior Wall Street executive died of virus complications. The Aussie was lower after public gatherings were limited to just two people. The yen edged higher.

Key Developments:

  • Cases top 713,000; 33,600 dead, 149,000 recovered: Johns Hopkins
  • U.S. deaths pass 2,400, with more than 138,000 cases
  • Nigeria locks down biggest cities
  • Brazil deaths rise to 136
  • Indonesia prepares for nationwide quarantine
  • Passengers on “death ship” plea for rescue

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Click VRUS on the terminal for news and data on the coronavirus and here for maps and charts. For analysis of the impact from Bloomberg Economics, click here. For BNEF’s view of the impact on energy, click here.

U.S. Deaths Could Reach 200,000; Spain Toll Rises: Virus Update

Australia to Unveil Wage Subsidies (5 p.m. NY)

Australia will announce more income support for workers on Monday as part of a third stimulus package.

The government has already passed more than A$80 billion ($49 billion) of fiscal stimulus. In an interview with Sky News Monday, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg declined to comment on the scale of the planned wage subsidies, reported to be up to A$1,500 every two weeks per employee for the next six months.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Sunday limited public gatherings to just two people as the national death toll climbed to 16.

Read the story here

Mexican Governors Test Positive (4:10 p.m. NY)

The governor of Mexico’s southern Tabasco state is the second regional official to test positive for the virus. Adan Augusto Lopez, a close ally of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, disclosed his test result on Sunday.

The other official with a confirmed test is Hidalgo state Governor Omar Fayad. The two men, writing on their respective Twitter accounts, said they would quarantine themselves at home and follow health protocols.

Rhode Island Expands Car Stops (4 p.m. NY)

Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo repealed an order for police to only stop cars crossing the border with license plates from New York, and now is requiring all cars, regardless of origin, to be pulled over as they cross the state’s southern border with Connecticut.

Raimondo acted after an outcry from civil rights groups and a threat of legal action from Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, now the U.S. epicenter of the outbreak.

All visitors will be told to self-quarantine for 14 days. The National Guard is also checking for out-of-state travelers at bus and train stations and at Rhode Island’s airport.

Read the story here

Venezuela’s Guaido Seeks Coalition (3:50 p.m. NY)

Venezuela National Assembly President Juan Guaido urged formation of a “national emergency government” to replace Nicolas Maduro’s regime and get financing to save lives.

Guaido in a Twitter video Saturday night said his team has developed what’s being called the Jose Maria Vargas plan that includes seeking $1.2 billion from multilateral organizations and as well as obtaining medical supplies and food, making money transfers to people staying at home, and constructing water wells for hospitals.

Read story here

South Africa Cases, Deaths Rise (3:45 p.m. NY)

South Africa reported its second Covid-19 death as total cases rose to 1,280. The 74-year-old man had an underlying skin cancer condition, South Africa’s health ministry said in a statement, and was confirmed as ill on March 27 after returning with family from Kruger National Park with flu-like symptoms.

Nigeria Cities in Lockdown (2:45 p.m. NY)

Nigeria will restrict people’s movement and ordered businesses and offices closed in its main cities of Lagos and Abuja, as well as Ogun state. The lockdown begins Monday and continues for two weeks, President Muhammadu Buhari said on state TV Sunday. Nigeria, which has 97 cases, already closed its borders and halted domestic flights.

Read the full story here

France Monitors ICU Cases for Hope (2:40 p.m. NY)

France anticipates its lockdown measures will start to bear fruit this week as the rate of intensive care cases is set to slow, a health ministry official said.

“If there has been less contact between people thanks to the confinement,” France’s health director Jerome Salomon said, “we should start to see a reduction in the number of new cases requiring intensive care each day.”

France has 40,174 infections with 4,632 cases requiring intensive care and 2,606 deaths.

Think Tank Offers Reopening Plan (2:30 p.m. NY)

The conservative American Enterprise Institute on Sunday released a “road map to reopening” the U.S., offering a four-phase plan for navigating the pandemic and emerge from tough restrictions.

Scott Gottlieb, former head of the Food and Drug Administration and a resident AEI fellow, said on CBS that aggressive social distancing measures should stay in place until there is a “sustained reduction” in the number cases for 14 days.

The 16-page “road map” he co-wrote with four others suggests an outline to transition from “sweeping mitigation strategies” to new approaches. The report offers recommendations for avoiding a similar infectious disease threat in the future, through investment into research and development, expansion of health care infrastructure and workforce, and strong preparedness plans.

Slovenia Targets $3.3 Billion in Aid (2:25 p.m. NY)

Slovenia plans economic measures worth about 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) to help protect jobs, ensure business liquidity and improve the welfare of the hardest-hit citizens, Prime Minister Janez Jansa said in live broadcast from Ljubljana.

The government will offer state guarantees to banks for loans to those hurt most by the crisis. It would temporarily freeze corporate and income tax payments and pay social contributions for all active employees, including the self-employed.

Slovenia confirmed its 11th death on Sunday.

Bulgaria to Offset Virus Fallout (1:55 p.m. NY)

Bulgaria is planning to revise this year’s budget to allow additional funding to offset the effects of the coronavirus.

The finance ministry will offer amendments to raise the maximum level of new debt, now fixed at 2.2 billion lev ($1.25 billion), Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov said Sunday on private Nova TV. The government is considering new borrowing of as much as 1 billion lev ($568 million), depending on market conditions, he said, without specifying a source of funding.

Bulgaria has 346 cases and eight deaths.

Moscow Enters ‘New Phase’ (1:30 p.m. NY)

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin ordered his city’s 12.7 million residents to stay home starting Monday, warning that the spread of novel coronavirus in the city “has entered a new phase.”

The measures in Russian capital’s are the strictest yet imposed in a major Russian city. Passes will be introduced soon, and residents who are out will need to be at least 1.5 meters from others. Sobyanin earlier ordered non-essential businesses to close to slow the spread of the illness.

Confirmed infections in Moscow jumped overnight to 1,014 on Sunday and make up two-thirds of the country’s total.

University Dorms for Social Distancing (1:30 p.m. NY)

Suffolk University offered its dormitories for homeless Boston residents to ease conditions in overcrowded shelters that prevent social distancing measures, Mayor Marty Walsh said Sunday.

Suffolk will provide at least 172 beds with about 320 additional beds made available through city, non-profit and state initiatives, Walsh said.

Normalcy May Be Six Months Away, U.K. Says (1 p.m. NY)

U.K. lockdown measures could last for months and the death toll will probably get worse in the coming weeks, Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England Jenny Harries said.

While current measures appear to be succeeding in keeping people home, the steps will take time to yield results and the government is expecting the toll to increase in the next few weeks, she said.

It will take “two or three months to see whether we’ve really squashed it,” she said, and “three to six months, ideally -- and there’s lots of uncertainty around that -- to see at what point we can actually get back to normal.”

Fatalities in the U.K. increased to 1,228 Sunday with 19,522 confirmed cases.

New York Deaths Reach 965 (12:25 p.m. NY)

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said total deaths for the state as of Sunday reached 965 up from 728 a day earlier.

At a briefing in Albany, Cuomo said thousands of state residents will die from the virus, although he did not have precise projections

“I hope it’s wrong,” the governor said.

Italian Deaths Drop for Second Day (12:10 pm. NY)

Italy’s deaths fell for a second straight day, a sign that stern measures implemented over the past three weeks may be bearing fruit.

Fatalities from the disease declined to 756 on Sunday from 889 a day earlier. Total fatalities are now 10,779. New infections in the past 24 hours totaled 5,217, down from 5,974 the previous day, civil protection authorities said in Rome. Italy now has 97,689 total cases, second only to the U.S.

The northern region of Lombardy may be nearing the peak of infections, Governor Attilio Fontana said Sunday, while the country as a whole could also be near the top, Vice Minister for Health Pierpaolo Sileri said on Sky TG24 television.

Full story here

Jefferies Group CFO Dies of Virus (11 a.m. NY)

Jefferies Group LLC said long-time Chief Financial Officer Peg Broadbent, 56, has died from coronavirus complications, one of the first deaths from the pandemic among senior Wall Street executives.

The company named Teri Gendron, CFO of Jefferies Financial Group, as the interim CFO and Chief Accounting Officer, according to a statement on Sunday.

Read full story here

India to Quarantine Migrant Workers (10:50 a.m. NY)

India’s federal government asked states to quarantine migrant workers for 14 days and prevent the movement of people across borders.

Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown on Tuesday, many people left large cities like the capital New Delhi and the financial center of Mumbai, trying to reach their homes after work disappeared overnight. Such movement violates the lockdown measures, the home ministry said on Sunday.

India’s cases rose to 979, with 25 deaths, said Lav Agarwal, a senior official of the health ministry.

Read the full story here

Fauci Says 200,000 U.S. Deaths Possible (10 a.m. NY)

U.S. coronavirus deaths could reach 200,000, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” More than half of the new cases are in New York, he said.

“Looking at what we’re seeing now, we’re looking at 100,000 to 200,000” deaths, “but I don’t want to be held to that,” Fauci said on CNN. “I just don’t think that we really need to make a projection, when it’s such a moving target, that you can so easily be wrong and mislead people.”

The U.S. has almost 125,000 confirmed infections with more than 2,000 deaths.

U.S. Deaths Could Reach 200,000; Spain Toll Rises: Virus Update

New Orleans Shortage Looms (9:38 a.m. NY)

Louisiana, which has the fourth-highest U.S. coronavirus death total so far, anticipates running out of capacity for breathing machines in the city of New Orleans within a week.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said that the recent Mardi Gras celebration -- before the imposition of social distancing -- likely contributed to the rapid spread of Covid-19 in the state’s largest city.

French Companies Apply for Aid (8:02 a.m. NY)

More than 200,000 French businesses have applied for government aid to keep 2.2 million workers on their payroll as a lockdown to fight the coronavirus brings several industries to a halt, Labor Minister Muriel Penicaud said.

Manufacturers, hotels and restaurants, the construction industry and non-food retailers are among the hardest hit, she said. The French government has earmarked 8.5 billion euros ($9.5 billion) over two months to help companies that temporarily idle employees because of the lockdown and ensure that they can restart work when the crisis is over.

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