The US has cut interest rates to almost zero and launched a US$ 700bn stimulus program in a bid to protect the economy from the effect of coronavirus. It is part of a coordinated action announced on Sunday in the UK, Japan, the Eurozone, Canada, and Switzerland.
The number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Argentina has risen from two to eight within the past 24 hours, the national Health Ministry said.
Covid 19 might not be a priority in Argentina at the moment, although there are some cases under observation, but what is really threatening is the mosquito-transmitted dengue with 152 cases confirmed in the province of Buenos Aires and some 3.000 in the northern provinces of Misiones and Corrientes.
Iran's deputy health minister confirmed on Tuesday that he has been infected with the new coronavirus, amid a major outbreak in the Islamic republic that have fuelled fears of a contagion in the region. Iraj Harirchi coughed occasionally and appeared to be sweating during a press conference on Monday with government spokesman Ali Rabiei.
China said on Thursday it has again changed the method of counting patients with COVID-19 and will now include only those diagnosed by sophisticated laboratory testing.
Mercosur health ministers will be holding an urgent meeting this week in Paraguay to address the spread of dengue, the outbreak of measles and the possible arrival of the China coronavirus to the region.
The coronavirus epidemic could damage global economic growth this year, the IMF head said on Sunday, but a sharp and rapid economic rebound could follow. “There may be a cut that we are still hoping would be in the 0.1 to 0.2 percentage space,” the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, told the Global Women's Forum in Dubai.
The United States feels let down by a lack of transparency from China over the coronavirus crisis, a senior White House official said on Thursday. We are a little disappointed that we haven't been invited in and we're a little disappointed in the lack of transparency coming from the Chinese, Larry Kudlow, the director of President Donald Trump's Economic Council, told reporters.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that confirmed cases of coronavirus being transmitted by people who have never travelled to China could be the tip of the iceberg.
Brazil's lower house of Congress late approved a bill laying out rules for the quarantine of Brazilian nationals returning from China who may be infected with coronavirus, as well as other measures to combat the disease. The measures will be in force as long as the public health emergency declared by the World Health Organization is in place.