In Episode 51 of Inside Covid-19, there’s an update on South Africa’s war against the coronavirus from the country’s designated expert Dr Salim Abdool Karim; we hear about insurers that are refusing to settle billions in business interruption claims; there’s a look back to the Black Death and the Spanish Flu to try understand what the economy will look like after the pandemic; and we go inside the Oval Office with the exclusive interview our partners at the Wall Street Journal held with US president Donald Trump on the pandemic. – Alec Hogg
In today’s Covid-19 headlines:
- South Africa’s total confirmed coronavirus patients went past 100 000 on Monday with the third successive day of over 4,000 new cases. Just over half, or 53,000 have been classified as recovered, with a further 61 deaths on Monday taking the total to 1,991. Globally, with around 5.5m people having recovered from the virus, there are now 3.8m active cases of which 58 000 are classified as serious or crucial. New cases have been growing at around 150,000 a day, with a second wave clearly evident in the USA which recorded more than 30,000 fresh infections on Monday, surpassing recent leader Brazil at 24,000 with India next highest with 13,500. South Africa is 8th on this un-enviable list behind those three, Russia, Mexico, Chile and Pakistan. Although far behind Mexico’s world leading 1,044 deaths on Monday, South Africa is edging up the daily mortality list and now occupies 13th.
- A battle is brewing between South African businesses and their insurance companies over claims relating to the Covid-19 pandemic. The conflict has arisen out of Business Interruption insurance, particularly those which included cover for infectious diseases. Insurance companies have been rejecting the claims outright, or making the process impossible. One of the most affected is the tourism and hospitality sector which has been paralysed by the Covid-19 enforced shutdown.
- The South African public and individual companies have donated 1.4m pieces of Personal Protective Equipment for healthcare workers through the Business For SA PPE portal the organisation disclosed today. This included 945,000 pairs of examination gloves, 233,000 surgical masks, 130,000 N95 respirators, 135,000 face shields and 9 100 litres of sanitiser.
- South Africa’s official unemployment rate rose to 30.1% in the three months to end March, a reduction of 91,000 in the workforce, but with almost a million people joining the pool of potentially economically active people, the net number of unemployed rose by what Stanlib economist Kevin Lings describes as a “very concerning 869,000” to just over 7m. Lings says that when you add those so discouraged that they no longer look for work, the expanded unemployment rate increases to 39.7%. The jobless problem is most acute among the youth with the unemployment rate for those under 25 at 59%, but some 70% when including the discouraged. Lings says the continued deterioration of the labour market reflects a lack of fixed investment spending and record low business confidence. The latest data was measured prior to the impact of Covid-19 suggesting significant further deterioration in the second quarter.