World Coronavirus Dispatch: LatAm, Caribbean surpass Europe in fatalities

Hong Kong's free tests to entire city, China's exports jump in July, Google, Facebook announces WFH and other pandemic-related news from across the globe

Latin America and the Caribbean have surpassed Europe in the number of coronavirus deaths, with more than 211,000. So far, Europe had remained the hardest-hit region worldwide with 200,000 fatalities, most of them recorded in the early months of the pandemic. The rise in the death toll in Latin America has been driven by Brazil’s sharp upturn in cases and deaths, while Mexico, Peru, Chile and Colombia are relentlessly recording fatalities. Read more here

Let’s look at the global statistics:


Total Confirmed Cases: 19,025,580


Change Over Yesterday: 211,402


Total Deaths: 713,845


Total Recovered: 11,495,650

Nations hit with most cases: US (4,882,433), Brazil (2,912,212), India (1,964,536), Russia (870,187) and South Africa (538,184)

Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center

Signs point to far less rosy US jobs report for July: Friday’s employment report is forecast to show a 1.48 million increase in non-farm payrolls in July. That’s following a combined rise of 7.5 million in May and June, which just started to make up the 22 million drop over the first two months of the pandemic. An increase in new cases starting mid-June, especially in the South and West, added further uncertainty to the economic rebound. Read more here

Hong Kong to offer free virus tests to entire city: Chief Executive Carrie Lam said Hong Kong will launch a one-time free, voluntary virus test for millions of city residents as a way to identify silent carriers. She said the program will begin in one to two weeks, and has asked the central Chinese government to help build 1,000 more isolation beds. Read more here

China’s exports jumped in July on Stronger US, global demand: China’s exports rose in July as economic activity in the rest of the world recovered and shipments to the US jumped, while imports unexpectedly contracted due to falling commodity prices and the ongoing fragility of China’s own recovery. Exports rose 7.2 percent in dollar terms in July from a year earlier, while imports fell 1.4 per cent. Read more here

After Google, Facebook announces work from home till July 2021: “Based on guidance from health and government experts, as well as decisions drawn from our internal discussions about these matters, we are allowing employees to continue voluntarily working from home until July 2021,” a Facebook spokeswoman said. Read more here

Specials

Covid-19 researchers hope monoclonal antibody treatments are a bridge to vaccine: 

There are a few dozen studies under way in the global push to develop monoclonal antibody therapies—drugs known as “mAbs” that can both prevent and fight infection. They are made by screening hundreds of thousands of antibodies found in the blood of recovered patients, isolating the most potent and engineering them into supercharged disease fighters. Monoclonal antibodies have been used to fight illnesses for decades. The first mAbs treatment was licensed in the US in 1986 to help kidney transplant patients accept their new organ. The method has since been modified to treat cancers  and autoimmune disorders. Read more here

US worse off than Russia, Mexico in 2020 Economic Misery Ranking

America fell 25 spots, from the no. 50 spot to no. 25, on Bloomberg’s Misery Index, which tallies inflation and unemployment outlooks for 60 economies. The drop comes as President Donald Trump fights for re-election while millions of Americans remain unemployed. Only Iceland, Israel, and Panama were even close to that level of deterioration in the annual rankings. Almost all of the economies surveyed are projected to be more miserable this year amid Covid-19, with analysts expecting increased joblessness and tepid growth. Read more here

How the pandemic might be hurting your eyes: 
The pandemic spike in television, streaming and even social media “doomscrolling” may be here for a-while. And all that additional screen-time? Well, it could be bad for you. Experts say the LED light emitted from most screens exposes your eyes to high levels of “blue light,” which can disrupt sleep patterns and lead to “computer vision syndrome,” associated with headaches and eyestrain. Read more here

Opinion: The next global depression is coming and optimism won't slow it down, writes Ian Bremmer, American political scientist and Time columnist. He argues that even when there is a vaccine, it won’t flip a switch bringing the world back to normal. Some will have the vaccine before others do. Some who are offered it won’t take it. Recovery will come by fits and starts. Read more here