News Update – Monday, March 23, 2020

APCO Worldwide's Coronavirus Beat is a twice weekly publication on the impact of COVID-19 on businesses, economies, policy and culture, and how leaders are responding. The next newsletter will appear Thursday, March 26.

Have a comment about this newsletter? We welcome your feedback.

Business & Economic Impact

1. Fed's Bullard: $2.5 trillion hit to economy is necessary and manageable if officials move quickly, Reuters

2. Chinese domestic flight capacity rebounds as Western flights shut down, The Economist
3. Foreign orders at Chinese exporters plunge as pandemic widens, Caixin Global
4. Bloomberg Economics predicts global GDP to shrink by 0.2% this year, Bloomberg

5. OECD warns that the world will take years to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, BBC

6. General Electric's aviation division is the first major U.S. manufacturer to lay off employees, The Wall Street Journal
7. CVS Health to fill 50,000 jobs to keep up with demand surge for COVID-19, CNBC

Global Policy

1. China turns to credit to boost domestic consumption hit by coronavirus, Financial Times

2. EU planning new fiscal firepower to tackle coronavirus fallout, Financial Times
3. U.S. Senate fails to advance coronavirus bill as Republicans and Democrats spar over final terms, The Washington Post

4. Germany to seek approval to borrow up to €356 billion, giving up on a long-standing commitment to maintain a balanced budget, Politico

5. The UK promises to pay workers’ wages during the coronavirus pandemic, World Economic Forum

6. Singapore businesses seek larger second stimulus package urgently as global economy worsens, The Straits Times

Control Measures

1. Nearly one in three Americans are under government orders to stay home, Reuters
2. Germany bans public gatherings of more than 2 people to stop coronavirus as Merkel self-isolates, The New York Times

3. Hungary's parliament is considering emergency legislation to give Orban the power to rule by decree, The Guardian
4. India grounds all domestic flights for one week as governments race to extend lockdown, The Times of India
5. China, South Korea and Taiwan use smartphone technology for everything from implementing quarantines to health monitoring, The Straits Times
6. The slow arrival of COVID-19 has allowed African governments to learn from Asia and Europe, Brookings Institution

Events & Happenings

1. Canada and Australia are the first countries to withdraw from Tokyo 2020, calling on the IOC to postpone the Games to 2021, Axios

2. International Baccalaureate cancels May exams, affecting more than 200,000 students worldwide, South China Morning Post
3. VivaTech, Europe's biggest startup and tech event, scrapped for June, Viva Technology
4. Mosques in the UAE are halting public prayers for one month to stop the spread of COVID-19, Gulf News
5. For the first time in 228 years, the New York Stock Exchange will open without its trading floor, Quartz
6. Coronavirus cases without symptoms spur call for wider tests, Bloomberg

BLAME GAME

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a driving source of tension between China and the U.S. as both sides escalate rhetoric over its nomenclature. Statements by senior U.S. officials and politicians – including U.S. President Donald Trump – referring to COVID-19 as the "Chinese Virus" caused great contention among the public and government officials alike. Various statements blam ing China and the Chinese Communist Party for the global pandemic have driven Beijing to double down on their criticisms of the U.S., including suggesting that the U.S. may have brought the virus to China in the first place.

Tit-for-tat speculation over COVID-19 has become yet another challenge for U.S.-China relations amid the implementation of the phase one trade agreement. The coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. has also increased calls to decouple from China in critical industries, including medical supply chains. Sensing the increased tension amid a global pandemic, China's ambassador to the U.S. broke away from his fellow diplomats by rebuking the conspiracy theory. As COVID-19 escalates in the U.S., limiting the chance for any future trade negotiations, the latest flareups over COVID-19 underscore the importance of implementing the U.S.-China phase one deal to avoid inflicting further economic damage.

CLOSED FOR BUSINESS

Governments around the world are adopting more extreme measures to contain the COVID-19 at home. Since Italy ordered a nationwide lockdown on March 12, similar measures have been employed in Spain, France, and Belgium. The UK and Canada have warned they will tighten lockdown penalties and control measures if needed to enforce social distancing. Within the U.S., state measures are increasing in severity: California and New York implemented statewide lockdown policies, with governors in Massachusetts, Michigan and Ohio ordering citizens to shelter-in-place.

While the widespread lockdowns aim to curb the spread of virus, the WHO has warned that a resurgence of COVID-19 is likely to occur without strong public health measures such as increased testing. While the effects of these lockdowns will take time to measure, their impact is already being witnessed in global markets and business activity. As lockdowns extend to workplaces and production facilities, businesses should enhance internal management protocols and prepare for further challenges resulting from a prolonged lockdown.

Stay Ahead: Insights from APCO

Gulf Employees Look to Governments for COVID-19 Guidance

Mamoon Sbeih, president of APCO Worldwide's Middle East & North Africa region, highlights the findings of a recent APCO Worldwide survey on the impact of COVID-19 in the Arabian Gulf. You can also watch a webinar discussing these findings on APCO's Coronavirus Hub.

"Concerns about the impact of COVID-19 are high in the Arabian Gulf. In Bahrain, 80% of people say they’re very worried or extremely worried by the coronavirus. In the UAE the figure is 70% and in Saudi Arabia, 69%.

The survey of 1,200 people in Bahrain, the UAE and Saudi Arabia—the first of its kind in the region—also found that employees expect their companies to improve workplace hygiene and begin work from home (WFH) policies, either voluntary or compulsory."

How Social Media Can Help - and Hurt - During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Nicole Monge, senior associate director in APCO's Washington D.C. office, talks the good and the bad brought by social media amid the COVID-19 pandemic and how it may change the way we interact online:

"This pandemic ultimately will change not only the way we physically engage each other, but also how we interact with one another on social media and what we choose to share, retweet and discuss.

As a community, we are now talking about social distancing to stop the spread of the coronavirus, which leads to more phone time, more time to go down the rabbit hole that the Internet can be and more time to spread information that is not necessarily reflective of the most current virus statistics."

Best Practices on Working from the Homefront

As offices switch to work-from-home, Julie Jack and Kimberly Gardiner share ten trends and best practices from APCO's Future of Work study to ease the transition:

"Turn on the camera. Employees who are new to remote working may feel a lack of collaboration. Encourage employees to hold all meetings via video. Camera shy? Consider mandating that everyone wear a hat to help break the ice and ensure that no one shies away from joining because of a bad hair day.

Provide Support. Employees might feel overwhelmed during this period. Share information about where they can go for help and additional resources. For instance, APCO’s Parents Affinity Group provided a list of resources for parents who are now juggling with homeschooling and working."

emPOWER Outbreak 2020: Managing Your Response to COVID-19

To help clients manage crises related to COVID-19, APCO has developed emPOWER Outbreak 2020, which allows organizations to connect virtually from the safety of their offices and homes, play out scenarios online, evaluate decision-making and resources in real time, and come away with valuable insights that can translate immediately to protocol and actions.

Click here for more information.

Some Positive News

Vaccine development: An experimental vaccine developed by Moderna Inc. began the first stages of a clinical trial, with testing on 45 healthy adults in Seattle, The New York Times
China's new cases plummet: China has now closed down its last temporary hospital built to handle COVID-19 as there are not enough new cases to warrant them, Independent
Drugs that work: Doctors in India have successfully treated two Italian patients with COVID-19, administering a combination of drugs - principally Lopinavir and Ritonavir, alongside Oseltamivir and Chloroquine. Several are now suggesting the same medical treatment, on a case-by-case basis, globally, The Times of India

More Tips from Around the Water Cooler

What will coronavirus testing and treatment cost me?, The Wall Street Journal
Building a virtual culture: The remote workforce, APCO Worldwide
How to best help the community while social distancing, Axios
The coronavirus crisis doesn’t have to lead to layoffs, Harvard Business Review

Quotables

“The best that economic and financial policymakers can do right now is limit the damage. They cannot turn the economy around because this is a health issue, not an economic or financial issue,”

- Mohamed El-Erian, Chief Economic Advisor to Allianz SE

“Solidarity among nations, solidarity among healthworkers, solidarity among all of us is the only way to stop this COVID-19 pandemic."

- Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, World Health Organization Director-General

The APCO team is working with clients globally to manage this crisis, and we stand ready to support your needs. For more resources from APCO, including our latest research, information on how we can help or to contact us, visit apcoworldwide.com/coronavirus.

About Coronavirus Beat

Coronavirus Beat is a bulletin of updates and clippings from the most relevant media and government sources created to help APCO’s clients keep abreast of the impacts of COVID-19 from around the world. APCO is supporting clients in managing the issues they confront related the the outbreak. Contact our crisis team at Crisis360@apcoworldwide.com or +1.866.360.APCO (toll-free) or +1.866.483.2726 (outside the United States).

APCO Worldwide is an advisory and advocacy communications consultancy helping leading public and private sector organizations act with agility, and build organizational reputations, brands, relationships and solutions to succeed. APCO has offices in more than 30 major cities throughout the world. To find out how APCO’s integrated services can help your company, visit apcoworldwide.com.