The Americas are bearing the brunt of the global coronavirus pandemic at present, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday, with North and South America currently having four of the 10 worst hit countries in the world.
At least 170 police officers in Peru have died after contracting the coronavirus while enforcing the South American nation's pandemic lockdown, the interior minister said on Thursday.
Passenger revenues are expected to fall to US$241 billion (down from US$ 612 billion in 2019). This is greater than the fall in demand, reflecting an expected 18% fall in passenger yields as airlines try to encourage people to fly again through price stimulation. Load factors are expected to average 62.7% for 2020, some 20 percentage points below the record high of 82.5% achieved in 2019.
The Nicolás Maduro regime blames Venezuelan migrants for the increase in the spread of the coronavirus in Venezuela while hundreds of these emigrants, pushed by their limited survival options, remain stranded in makeshift camps in different cities of Colombia waiting to be able to cross into their country.
The Brazilian Real and Mexican peso have both rebounded strongly in recent weeks, but their rallies are starting to diverge with the peso running out of steam and the Real gaining momentum.
As the coronavirus-hit economy of Peru stagnated over the past three months, Lima coffin-maker Genaro Cabrera has seen his sales quadruple. I never imagined working to such an extreme, Cabrera said at his factory in the rundown district of San Juan de Lurigancho.
Holders of Ecuador sovereign bonds have formed a committee to hold talks with the country's government on a potential re-profiling of the country's external debt, the group said in a statement on Thursday.
Latam Airlines registered a significant rise Tuesday and Wednesday on the Santiago Stock Exchange, rising 37.63% and 16%, which is attributed to the support that its partner Qatar Airways, who owns 10% of the Chilean airline, disclosed.
The World Health Organization's (WHO's) regional director for the Americas urged the United States on Tuesday to keep helping countries in the region to fight the novel coronavirus even as the Trump administration leaves the UN agency.
Tens of thousands of workers lined up before dawn to return to work at automotive factories along Mexico's northern border on Monday, the first day that industries joined the country's list of essential activities beginning to reopen.