Coronavirus infection numbers take a back seat as optimism drives markets

Covid-19’s fallout is still causing anxiety, but investors take comfort from central banks’ massive liquidity injections and signs of US economic recovery

However, the resurgence of the virus in some parts of the US should not be ignored

Reading Time:3 minutes

A man wearing a face mask visits the recently reopened Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California, on July 1. California governor Gavin Newsom has announced that the state would be shutting down indoor operations for restaurants, zoos, museums and several other sectors effective immediately due to concerns over the recent spike in Covid-19 cases. Photo: AFP

Published: 1:00am, 3 Jul 2020Updated: 3:39am, 3 Jul 2020

“The worst is yet to come,” warned Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organisation, at a press conference on Monday, deploring the “lack of global solidarity and national unity” in tackling the Covid-19 pandemic.

Over the past few months, sharp differences in countries’ ability to contain the virus have emerged. Latin America’s share of the daily number of confirmed deaths across the globe has surged to more than 50 per cent, according to the Financial Times, fuelled by the rapid spread of the disease in Brazil.

In Europe, by contrast, where strict lockdowns were imposed and countries only began to lift restrictions once their infection curves had flattened out, the daily number of new cases has fallen dramatically since early April.

Europe’s success is accentuated by the recent surge in infections in parts of America. A growing list of states across the south and west of the country (including California, Texas and Florida which, together, account for nearly 30 per cent of America’s gross domestic product) have seen their daily case rates more than double over the past month, forcing them to halt or reverse their reopenings.

Demonstrators march through downtown Sanford, Florida on July 1 to protest against an order requiring people to wear masks in response to the spike in coronavirus cases. Photo: Orlando Sentinel via AP

On Tuesday, Anthony Fauci, a member of the White House Covid-19 task force, warned that the number of new cases in the US could soar to 100,000 a day, up from the current level of more than 40,000. In the whole of the European Union, the seven-day average of new cases has plummeted to just over 4,000, data from Bloomberg shows.

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