Topline: Up to one in five workers in the UK could be off work at the
peak of a Covid-19 epidemic, the British government has warned, as it published
its plans to tackle the spread of the illness that has now spread to 70
countries.
·
“Given that the data
are still emerging, we are uncertain of the impact of an outbreak on business.
In a stretching scenario, it is possible that up to one fifth of employees may
be absent from work during peak weeks,” the 31-page coronavirus battleplan, published by the British
government, reads.
·
It added that it does
not know which businesses will be affected. There are now 51 confirmed cases of
coronavirus in the U.K. while 13,500 people have been tested, and the plans
outline what the British government would do in the worst-case scenario.
·
If the disease takes
hold in the U.K., the government would encourage more people to work from home,
call for school closures, and discourage large public gatherings like football
matches.
·
Prime Minister Boris
Johnson said at a press conference on the coronavirus on Tuesday: “I want to
stress at this stage for the vast majority of the people in this country, we
should be going about our business as usual.”
·
The full extent of the
outbreak is not yet known—while the first cluster of cases were reported in
Wuhan, China, the illness has since spread to around 70 countries and the WHO
has warned that eight times as many cases have been recorded outside China than
inside over the past day.
·
In the U.S., the
number of cases has topped 100 across a dozen states, and six deaths. The FDA’s
commissioner, Dr Stephen Hahn, said up to 1 million people could be tested for coronavirus by the
end of the week.
Additional fact: The finance ministers of the G7, a club of
seven of the world’s most developed economies, meant on Tuesday to discuss the
impact of the coronavirus. Stock markets rose on the hopes that the G7 and
central banks could unveil measures to soften the impact of Covid-19 on the
global economy. Bank of England governor Mark Carney warned earlier on Tuesday
that the outbreak could have a “large” but “temporary” impact on the British
economy.
Key background: The spread of the illness, which has
infected 90,000 people and killed more than 3,000 people worldwide, has forced
international firms to implement large-scale work from home policies. In the
latest move, Twitter staff in Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea have been told to work
from home, while the rest of its 5,000 employees around the world
have been strongly encouraged to work remotely. Facebook and Google have
operated temporary work from home policies for staff in affected areas,
particularly in China, the centre of the outbreak where millions of people have
been under lockdown since January. The global spread of the coronavirus has
seen Facebook and Twitter pull out of South x Southwest, while major
international conferences, such as the Geneva Motor Show and Mobile World
Congress, have been cancelled.
What to watch for: Whether the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo are
postponed. Japan’s olympics minister, Seiko Hashimoto, says all is being done
to make sure the games go ahead as planned from July 24 to August 9, but
suggested there is scope for the event to be pushed back until later in the
year.
Tangent: Pope Francis has tested negative for coronavirus. The Pope
was tested after a cold forced him to cancel his annual Lent retreat for the
first time.
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