Hi all,
Here are some news stories I have been reading for today that I think would be interesting.
From China,
Despite reopening, many Chinese firms are facing layoffs, pay cuts, and uncertain export conditions as other countries combat COVID-19. Even while China reports no new cases at home, they are dealing with how other countries fight the virus in terms of policies such as quarantines, country lockdowns, and canceled orders as domestic capital and resources go to fight the virus.
Domestically, authorities in Hubei have lifted the lockdown on the providence and are now allowing people to move through the region where the majority of the COVID-19 cases in China actually took place. Wuhan is still under lockdown, but residents in Xianning are undergoing fast response testing before they can leave the city. This measure is meant to prevent the virus from transmitting and reflects a larger domestic effort by authorities to prevent another outbreak.
In addition to a 344 billion dollar stimulus to fight the economic impact of the virus, authorities are also placing restrictions on incoming and outgoing flights. Those coming in from abroad to Shanghai will be placed in quarantine for 14 days, meanwhile incoming flights have been limited to one route and one flight per week as of March 29th. The reason for these measures is to combat COVID-19 infection from abroad, as new Covid cases came from overseas travelers. Most of these cases were of Chinese passport carriers coming back to China.
In a nutshell, China is fighting new COVID-19 cases from abroad by limiting the ability of the virus to spread, specifically by targeting travel and movement in regions where the virus was first reported in country and from other parts of the world currently affected by COID-19. The impact of the virus is economically felt both from slowdowns in country and loss of business overseas as other countries repurpose their resources to fight the virus.
Global Affairs Weekly 