N.Y. Deaths Top 9.000; French Cases Lowest in Week: Virus Update
Catch all the global virus updates here.
(Bloomberg) --
Big European nations reported a slowdown in new cases, allowing governments to seek ways for safely easing lockdowns. The U.K. is the fifth nation to record more than 10,000 deaths.
Oil and S&P 500 futures reversed early gains on Monday despite OPEC+ agreeing to cut crude production as the pandemic cratered demand. A Fed banker cast doubt on a rapid recovery after economic life restarts.
Key Developments
- Coronavirus Tracker: Global cases exceed 1.84 million; deaths top 113,000
- Pork producer warns of meat shortages
- Cruise passengers spend Easter on “ghost ship”
- NBA owner Mark Cuban sees fanless games
- Volatile data complicates ending Europe lockdown
- Demand doubles for satellite tracking of food supplies
Latin Economies to Shrink: World Bank (5:30 p.m. NY)
A dramatic drop in demand from China and the G-7 nations as the pandemic shutters economies will shrink the gross domestic product in Latin America and the Caribbean region, excluding Venezuela, by 4.6% this year, according to the World Bank.
A bank report concludes most hurt are commodity exporters in South America and exporters of goods and services in Central America and the Caribbean. A collapse in tourism is severely impacting some Caribbean nations.
If governments can preserve jobs, the region should resume growth quickly and the GDP should expand 2.6% in 2021, the World Bank said in “The Economy in the Time of the Covid-19.”
Read the full story.
N.J. Starts Planning for Possible Reopening (4:45 p.m. NY)
New Jersey reported an additional 168 deaths from Covid-19, bringing the statewide total to 2,350. Cases climbed by 6% to 61,850, a sixth straight day the increase was less than 10%.
Murphy said on CNN that said he and his staff spent time over the weekend “beginning to war-game” a possible reopening. But he said there won’t be any such move until the virus crisis has abated.
“Right now, the house is on fire, and job number one is to put the fire out,” he said.
U.S. Case Rate Falls for Second Day (4 p.m. NY)
U.S. cases rose 5.4% from a day earlier to more than 542,000 by midday Sunday, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg News. The rise was below the 7.9% average daily increase over the past week.
Cases rose almost 10% for the 24 hours ended on April 8, according to the data, a rate that fell to 7.9% on Friday and 5.6% on Saturday.
New York’s cases rose about 4%. South Dakota experienced a 17% rise from Saturday, bringing the total to 730.
Elsewhere:
- Florida added six deaths, for a statewide total to 452, the Department of Health reported. The state has 19,347 total cases. While testing has increased, only 11% are positive.
- Rhode Island reported seven new deaths, bringing the total to 63. The Department of Health added 316 cases, for a total of 2,665.
- Philadelphia added 16 deaths, pushing the toll to 176, with half identified as long-term care facility residents. Of the deaths, 65% were of people over age 70.
Turkish Minister Quits After Chaos (4:30 p.m. NY)
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu quit after a hastily announced weekend lockdown led thousands of people to spill onto streets, raising the risk of a new wave of infections. Soylu said on Twitter that he took full responsibility for the lockdown.
Later Sunday, President Tayyip Erdogan said he would not accept the resignation.
The minister was criticized after giving two hours warning late Friday of the action, abruptly ending weeks of social distancing measures as Turks flocked to buy groceries.
Pork Producer Warns of Shortages (3:15 p.m. NY)
The world’s biggest pork producer warned that the closure of processing factories as employees test positive for coronavirus is pushing meat supplies “perilously close to the edge” of shortfalls.
Smithfield Foods Inc. said it will idle its Sioux Falls, South Dakota, pork-processing facility -- which accounts for 4% to 5% of U.S. production -- after state officials reported more than 200 cases of Covid-19 at that company alone.
“It is impossible to keep our grocery stores stocked if our plants are not running,” Chief Executive Officer Ken Sullivan said in the statement.
Read the full story.
Mark Cuban Predicts Fanless NBA Games (2 p.m. NY)
Mark Cuban, the owner of the National Basketball Association’s Dallas Mavericks, said crowding back into sports stadiums and arenas won’t happen until the “science” is in place to make people feel safe.
“I think initially we’ll play just for the TV cameras, with essential personnel and players,” the billionaire said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“People aren’t going to just venture outside,” he said. “They’re not going to go to large gatherings. They’re not going to feel confident right off the bat. There’s going to be a lot of trepidation.”
Read the full story.
France Cases Lowest in a Week (1:40 p.m. NY)
France’s new coronavirus cases fell to the lowest in a week and the number of intensive-care patients dropped for a fourth day. Infections rose by 2,937 to 132,591 cases, the smallest increase since April 5, the health ministry said in an emailed statement. The death toll rose by 561, the fewest in four days, to 14,393.
“We’re observing the beginning of a very high leveling off,” the health ministry said. “But we must remain vigilant because hospitals and ICUs are taking care of a very large number of patients.”
Read the full story.
Turkey Deaths Climb to 1,198 (1:30 p.m. NY)
Turkey reported 97 new fatalities, bringing the death toll to 1,198 amid a two-day lockdown in major cities. The country had 4,789 new cases, a 9.2% rise from 52,167 the previous day, according to data published by Health Minister Fahrettin Koca, bringing the total to 56,956.
Mexico Exchange Chairman Dies (1:20 p.m. NY)
The chairman of Mexico’s stock exchange, Jaime Ruiz Sacristan, died early Sunday more than three weeks after he was hospitalized with coronavirus. He was 70. A statement from Bolsa Mexicana de Valores SAB didn’t cite a specific cause.
Ruiz, chairman since 2015, was among a cluster of high-profile Mexican executives who had tested positive after returning from a ski-resort vacation to Vail, Colorado, on a private jet.
Italy Daily Deaths Fewest Since March 19 (12:10 p.m. NY)
Italy reported 431 new deaths in the past day, the fewest in more than three weeks, as declining numbers of intensive care patients pointed to a lessening severity of the country’s outbreak. The country had 619 fatalities a day earlier.
The daily count is the lowest since March 19, when Italy registered 427 dead. Total fatalities reached 19,899, the most in Europe.
The country reported 4,092 new cases, compared with 4,694 a day earlier, civil protection officials said.
Read the full story.
Fed Official Warns of Flare Ups (12:05 p.m. NY)
Without an effective therapy or a vaccine, the U.S. could expect 18 months of rolling shutdowns as the outbreak recedes and then returns, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari said.
“We’re looking around the world. As they relax the economic controls, the virus flares back up again,” Kashkari said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“This could be a long hard road that we have ahead of us until we get either to an effective therapy or a vaccine,” he said. “It’s hard for me to see a V-shaped recovery under that scenario.”
Read the full story.
N.Y. Deaths Fall for Third Day (11:40 a.m. NY)
New York State had 758 deaths in the past 24 hours, down from 783 the day before and the third straight day of declines, Governor Andrew Cuomo said at his daily press conference.
It’s the sixth straight day of more than 700 deaths in the state, a fact Cuomo called “tragic.” Total deaths are 9,385, exceeded only by the tolls in Italy, Spain, France and the U.K.
Cases reached 188,694, a rise of 8,236, the Department of Health reported, around one-in-ten of reported cases around the world.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
With assistance from Bloomberg