COVID-19 Impact on Economic Outlook in Asia

Epidemic spread: As of Thursday, March 19 at 1:00pm ET, Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University reported 230,055 confirmed cases and 9,358 deaths attributed to COVID-19. Following aggressive actions to contain the spread of the epidemic, including the introduction of early travel bans and extensive contact-tracing and testing, Asian nations like China, South Korea and Singapore are seeing a slow in new infections, offering vital lessons for other countries. As people China reports an ever growing number of recovered patients, the center of the pandemic has shifted to Western Europe. With 35,713 cases, Italy has the largest epidemic outside of China, leading the Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte to enact a nationwide lockdown on March 9, 2020.

International extreme measures: Restrictive policies on social mobility are now in place in a growing number of as countries around the world to contain the pandemic. In Italy, France and Austria, among others, these include school closures, bans on public gatherings and reduced mass transit service. In the U.S. more than 25 states have closed schools, as of Wednesday, March 18 at 7pm ET, and San Francisco became the first city to introduce a shelter-in-place order, closing all non-essential businesses. Many countries in Western Europe have shut their borders, and by Tuesday, March 17, the EU announced it would close its external borders for 30 days. Adding to last week’s travel ban on foreign nationals from the EU, on Wednesday, March 18,  the U.S. announced it would close its border with Canada for non-essential travel.

Funding: The funding required to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is staggering, given wide-ranging needs, from strengthening the supply chain, to establishing and maintaining intensiveness care units, to accelerating vaccine development. The global funding response has been slow in spite of the growing severity of the situation. UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a “whatever it takes” package amounting to 15% of UK GDP – nearly $400 billion total. On Wednesday, March 18 President Trump signed into law a bill to ensure paid leave benefits to many Americans, part of a broader aid package to fight the effects of the pandemic. On Friday, March 13, WHO, the UN Foundation and the Swiss Philanthropy Foundation launched the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. This first-of-its kind fund enables individuals, corporations, foundations and other institutions to contribute directly to global response efforts. Facebook and Google have offered  their support to the fund, pledging to match donations raised through their platforms. On Tuesday, March 17, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced the launch of a $40 million Coronavirus Global Response Initiative which will support low- and middle-income countries slow and prevent the spread of COVID-19, in partnership with Vital Strategies. This morning, the Rockefeller Foundation committed $20 million to accelerate short- and long-term pandemic preparedness and response and to address systemic gaps in basic human services.