As anxious speculation mounted that the government might be considering extending the lockdown, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) released estimates that the shutting down of the economy to curb the coronavirus could cost some 370 000 jobs and see 1 600 businesses being declared insolvent.
Dr Christopher Loewald of the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee said that in ‘trying to estimate’ likely economic ‘shocks’, two key variables were job losses and business failures.
In the formal sector, the bank predicted ‘a possibility’ of some 370 000 jobs being lost and 1 600 businesses being declared insolvent in 2020’.
Economic worries mounted as the number of cases rose to 1 749, with 13 deaths. So far, 58 098 South Africans have been tested.
In other virus-related news
- Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was admitted to hospital on Monday, and placed in the intensive care unit hours later, was still in intensive care but was breathing without help. Johnson was a ‘fighter’ and he was confident he would recover. Britain had recorded 6 169 deaths, 786 yesterday;
- New York recorded 731 deaths, the largest single-day rise in the worst-hit state. More than 10 300 Americans have died of coronavirus complications since the outbreak began there in late January, according to John Hopkins University. It said there were at least 347 003 confirmed infections in the US;
- The Financial Times reported that, after several weeks of volatile trading, stock markets ‘have been rising this week – London’s FTSE 100 share index up more than 2% on Tuesday, after a 3% rise on Monday, and other major European markets showing similar increases’. It said analysts ascribed the better performance to ‘signs that the spread of coronavirus might be starting to slow’;
- South Korea reported fewer than 50 new cases for the second day in a row, according to news site Yonhap News. The country had 10 331 cases. South Korea’s much-praised approach boiled down to hastily implementing extensive testing (tens of thousands of people every day) and tracing;
- It was reported that three hospitals in two of India’s largest cities – Delhi and Mumbai – were shut after staff tested positive. Staff would only be allowed to go home once they tested negative;
- The BBC reported that more than 600 people had died of alcohol poisoning in Iran since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, as a result of people drinking unsafe alcohol ‘in the mistaken hope it would protect them from the virus’; and
- The National Museum of Australia is calling on all Australians to send their stories of living through the coronavirus episode to an official Facebook group, to help document this major moment in national life for posterity.