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COVID-19: Live Updates for Monday, May 4

Published 05/03/2020, 10:57 PM
Updated 05/04/2020, 02:55 PM

Rolling updates on the latest developments and head{{0|line} }s from around the world on the Covid-19 pandemic.

By Gina Lee, Peter Nurse and Kim Khan

2:45 PM ET: CDC Document Projects 2,500 U.S. Deaths Per Day

An internal projection from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there will be mor than 200,000 new cases of the virus by June and 2,500 deaths per day as the outbreak accelerates, Bloomberg reported. But the White House said it is only an “internal CDC document”.

2:15 PM ET: Fed Balance Sheet Outlook ‘Uncertain’

The outlook for the Federal Reserve's balance sheet is "highly uncertain" given the economic deterioration caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the New York Fed said. Prior to the pandemic, the New York Fed's projections had the balance sheet rising to $6.3 trillion under a baseline scenario. However, the Fed's balance sheet last month grew to $6.7 trillion.

1:12 PM ET: Apple, Google Back off Tracking in Virus App

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Alphabet’s Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) said they would ban the use of location tracking in apps that use a new contact tracing system the two are building to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

12:45 AM ET: Record Treasury Borrowing Expected

The U.S. Treasury on Monday will announce just how much new debt, expected to hit a record amount, it must issue to finance the budget-stretching stimulus measures aimed at combating the economic fallout from the pandemic.

10:00 AM ET: Factory Orders Tumble

U.S. factory orders sank by 10.3% in March, more than expected, compared with a downwardly revised 0.1% drop in February.

10:00 AM ET: Careem Lays off Nearly 1/3 of Workforce

Uber’s Dubai-based rideshare subsidiary Careem will lay off 536 employees, or 31% of its workforce, due to the impact of Covid-19 on business.

07:49 AM ET: Infections total 10 times the number of confirmed coronavirus cases - German study

More than 10 times as many people in Germany have likely been infected with the coronavirus than the number of confirmed cases, researchers from the University of Bonn have concluded from a field trial in one of the worst hit towns.

The preliminary study results, which have yet to be peer reviewed for publication in a scientific journal, serve as a reminder of the dangers of infection by unidentified carriers of the virus, some of whom show no symptoms, the researchers said.

07:45 AM ET: Romania to impose a "state of alert" in mid May

Romania will not extend a state of emergency past its May 15 expiry date, but will impose a "state of alert" allowing some modest relaxation of restrictions, President Klaus Iohannis said on Monday.

"Unfortunately this epidemics has not yet passed. We need to be responsible and be very cautions further ahead," Iohannis said, adding that some travel restrictions were lifted but "people won't be allowed to travel in groups larger than three".

06:35 AM ET: Britain not past coronavirus peak, says EU agency

Britain was one of five European countries yet to reach the peak of its coronavirus outbreak, according to the head of the European Union agency for disease control, contradicting the British government's line.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who returned to work last week after himself being seriously ill from COVID-19, said on Thursday Britain had past the peak and was "on the downward slope".

Andrea Ammon, director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, told EU lawmakers Bulgaria was still recording an increase in cases, while for Britain, Poland, Romania and Sweden the agency had seen "no substantial changes in the last 14 days".

06:28 AM ET: Roche to invest more than 400 million euros in German site for Covid-19 tests

Roche will invest more than 400 million euros ($437 million) in a German site, which makes antibody tests to detect who may have been infected with the new coronavirus.

The plan calls for Roche to invest in its biochemical production facility in Penzberg. Moreover, the Basel-based drugmaker will make additional investments in diagnostics research and development, Chairman Christoph Franz said.

05:01 AM ET: Hong Kong's recession deepens; Q1 GDP dropped 5.3% from the previous quarter

Hong Kong's recession deepened in the first quarter, with the economy shrinking by a seasonally adjusted 5.3% in January-March from the previous quarter, versus a revised 0.5% in October-December, advance estimates showed on Monday. On an annual basis, the economy contracted 8.9%, compared with a revised 3.0% in the fourth quarter of 2019.

03:26 AM ET: French manufacturing PMI slumped to record lows in April

French manufacturing activity plunged into its deepest recession on record in April as the euro zone's second-biggest economy contracted further during its coronavirus lockdown, a survey showed on Monday.

Data compiler IHS Markit said its final purchasing managers' index dropped to 31.5 in April from 43.2 in March, in {{0|line} } with a preliminary reading.

03:14 AM ET: ECB survey suggests relatively benign recession

The euro zone economy will contract less than many of the more pessimistic projections suggest but the recovery may be slow and gradual, the European Central Bank's Survey of Professional Forecasters showed on Monday.

The quarterly survey sees the economy shrinking by 5.5% this year, then growing by 4.3% in 2021 with coronavirus related restrictions lifted starting in May and June.

03:10 AM ET: German April manufacturing PMI sinks at fastest pace in 11 years

German factory output shrank at the fastest rate on record in April and firms in the export-oriented sector cut jobs at the fastest pace in almost 11 years, a survey showed on Monday, as the new coronavirus crushed demand.

{{0|IHS Markit} }'s Final Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for manufacturing - which accounts for about a fifth of Europe's largest economy - fell to 34.5, the lowest reading since March 2009, from 45.4 in March. The final figure was up from an initial flash reading of 34.4.

02:38 AM ET: Spanish April manufacturing PMI sinks to lowest level since December 2008

Spanish factory activity shrank to its lowest level since December 2008 in April, with {{0|{{0|IHS Markit} }} }'s Purchasing Managers' Index of manufacturing companies sinking to 30.8 in April from 45.7 in March, the biggest drop in one month since the records started in February 1998.

02:38 AM ET: Coronavirus to cut sales from U.K. companies by more than 20% - Deloitte survey

Britain's largest companies expect the coronavirus to reduce their sales by more than a fifth this year and are gloomier than during the 2008-09 financial crisis, according to a survey published on Monday by accountants Deloitte.

The quarterly survey of chief financial officers at more than 100 of Britain's largest businesses showed the biggest drop in confidence since it began in 2007, and the lowest risk appetite since the global financial crisis in 2008.

02:16 AM ET: Malaysia returns to work

Malaysia's government has eased curbs on movement and businesses for the first time in six weeks, looking to restart an economy racked by the coronavirus pandemic.

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said most businesses would be allowed to resume in the effort to stem economic losses the government estimates to stand at 63 billion ringgit ($14.52 billion) since the March 18 curbs.

01:30 AM ET: Japan set to extend state of emergency

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is set to extend the country's state of emergency on Monday until the end of May, according to public broadcaster NHK.

The government may also ease some of the current coronavirus-related constraints on economic activity by allowing places with relatively low infection risks, such as parks, to re-open, even in hard-hit prefectures.

01:09 AM ET: Asian PMIs fall deeper into contraction territory

Asia's factory activity was ravaged in April, with a series of Purchasing Managers' Indexes from {{0|{{0|IHS Markit} }} } (NYSE:INFO) (NYSE:INFO) falling deeper into contraction from March, with some diving to all-time lows and others hitting levels last seen during the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.

01:04 AM ET: Indonesia's tourist arrivals slump 64%

Indonesia's foreign tourist arrivals plunged 64.11% year-on-year in March to about 470,900, or fewer than half of January's number, as the coronavirus pandemic discouraged travel, data from the statistics bureau showed.

11:17 PM ET: Global cases top 3.5 million

Johns Hopkins University data said that there were 3,504,129 COVID-19 cases globally as of May 4th, with 247,126 deaths.

11:08 PM ET: Gliead’s remdesivir could be in hospitals by this week

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) could see its antiviral drug remdesivir in hospitals, ready to administer to COVID-19 patients as soon as this week.

Chief Executive Officer Daniel O’Day made the announcement just a few days after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for the drug.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Trump said overnight that he was confident that a vaccine will be available by the end of the year, despite public health officials stating that a vaccine could take anywhere from a year to 18 months.

11:04 PM ET: Hong Kong’s Exchange Fund reports $11.10 billion 1Q loss

Hong Kong’s Exchange Fund lost HK$86.1 billion ($11.10 billion) from its investments during the first quarter of 2020 due to the global stock market slump.

The loss is the fund’s biggest three-month loss in the 16 years it has been reporting its quarterly performance.

-- Reuters contributed to this report.

Latest comments

I just watch the WHO video... they said Pompeo news remain speculative without evidence the virus was leaked. At this time, I have enough information to say, Pompeo and Trump are liars. Based on facts, I will side with China. I have not seen evidence that support China lied on anything. Facts are pretty cleared to me.
Fauci mitigation method does not work. It is time to come up with a new way to fight this virus.
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