Powerscourt Coronavirus Briefing – 13 July 2020

While Florida reported 15,299 new cases on Sunday, a record one-day total for any US state, just 1,000 miles to the North, New York City had a far more auspicious landmark. On Saturday, it had its first day apparently free from Covid-19 deaths since March 13.

New York has been very tender in easing its restrictions and appears to be benefiting.

Florida, meanwhile, is trying to muscle its way back to “normalcy”, although the number of new cases being diagnosed in the state daily is such that it exceeds that of most countries.

If Florida were a country, it would rank fourth in the world for the most new cases in a day behind the United States, Brazil and India, Reuters reported.

At the same time, Walt Disney World, the iconic theme park based in Florida, has reopened, albeit with temperature checks and other restrictions in place, the Republican National Convention is set to begin in Jacksonville in August, and now Florida governor Ron DeSantis is ordering schools to reopen.

The picture being played out across the Southern and Western United States underlines the prevailing mood of the Trump administration, anxious economic reopening and the polarising influence the virus has had on an already divided nation. While editorials in the Trump-hating New York Times excoriate Donald Trump for “politicising” the virus, libertarians march in Michigan and Missouri, arguing health restrictions are a violation of their personal freedoms. The weaponising of the virus response, with recriminations on one side and denial on the other, is set to be the incendiary backdrop for the next US General Election on November 3.

In the UK, with reopened nail bars the latest sign of the nascent but slow recovery, health secretary Matt Hancock argues test and trace programmes will underpin the road back to normality. He suggests that robust testing should be able to support the country locate, isolate and control outbreaks on a localised basis and prevent the UK spiraling out of control again. But with some northern cities showing rising levels of the virus, the jury is still out.

European countries may currently be in a better place in terms of the management of the virus. But a study by Amnesty International found that health workers in the UK have a higher risk of death than any other country in the world apart from Russia.

Meanwhile, the impact of coronavirus on corporate debt is is eye-watering. Companies around the world are poised to take on nearly $1 trillion of new corporate debt, taking the total figure to nearly $9.3 billion, according to figures from Janus Henderson. The figures reflect the reopening of lending after markets slammed shut in March, fueled by government bond-buying programmes around the world.

Asian markets started the week in positive territory, typically up 2% while European markets have opened up 1%.