COVID-19: What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic on 4 June

Jun 4, 2020

A woman gets her haircut done by beauticians wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) inside a beauty salon, after authorities allowed them to open, during an extended nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in New Delhi, India, June 3, 2020. Image: REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

Linda Lacina

Digital Editor, World Economic Forum

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COVID-19

This daily round-up brings you a selection of the latest news updates on the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, as well as tips and tools to help you stay informed and protected.
Today's headlines: Confirmed cases above 6.5 million worldwide; WHO's hydroxychloroquine study can resume; COVID-19 positivity rates have doubled in Delhi; and the Forum's Great Reset.

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What is the World Economic Forum doing about the coronavirus outbreak?

Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic requires global cooperation among governments, international organizations and the business community, which is at the centre of the World Economic Forum’s mission as the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation.

Since its launch on 11 March, the Forum’s COVID Action Platform has brought together 1,667 stakeholders from 1,106 businesses and organizations to mitigate the risk and impact of the unprecedented global health emergency that is COVID-19.

The platform is created with the support of the World Health Organization and is open to all businesses and industry groups, as well as other stakeholders, aiming to integrate and inform joint action.

As an organization, the Forum has a track record of supporting efforts to contain epidemics. In 2017, at our Annual Meeting, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) was launched – bringing together experts from government, business, health, academia and civil society to accelerate the development of vaccines. CEPI is currently supporting the race to develop a vaccine against this strand of the coronavirus.

1. How COVID-19 is affecting the globe

Confirmed coronavirus cases have surpassed 6.5 million worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 386,000 people have died from the virus, while over 2.7 million have recovered.
2.8 million jobs were lost in the US in May, according to the ADP National Employment Report.
Church aid fills void in government aid for indigenous Peruvians.
COVID-19 positivity rates have doubled in Delhi.

2. WHO hydroxychloroquine study can resume

The hydroxychloroquine section of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Solidarity Trial can resume after being paused temporarily on 25 May, officials said at a COVID-19 briefing Wednesday. The trial’s Data Safety and Monitoring Committee had halted the study as a precaution in response to safety concerns raised by an observational study published in the Lancet days earlier.

The Data Safety Monitoring Board’s review has been completed, and WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that given the current mortality data available, there was no reason to discontinue the hydroxychloroquine arm of the international trial.

3. What managers really think about working from home

A recent study by Buffer looked into how workers and companies feel about remote work. While 98% of workers said they'd like the remote work flexibility they've experienced during the pandemic to continue, companies have some concerns, according to these charts and insights from Visual Capitalist.

What are managers concerns? Image: Visual Capitalist

4. How the world can ‘reset’ itself after COVID-19 – according to these experts
As lockdowns ease, governments and organizations turning their attention to the recovery process – and the opportunity it provides to rebuild in a different way. Yesterday the World Economic Forum announced its Great Reset initiative with HRH The Prince of Wales to guide decision-makers on the path to a more resilient, sustainable post-COVID world. In the spirit of that initiative, here are insights from three global leaders on what will be needed to 'build back better' after COVID-19 taken from the Forum's weekly podcast.

Gita Gopinath on the Economic Reset: While health spending will be needed in the short term, more debt financing and low-income rates will be key. Raising revenue might also be important, potentially in the form of a Solidarity Tax. “Countries will have to find ways of raising revenues and progressive taxation could be one form of it. Solidarity tax may be needed in some countries. It varies across countries, but this will be an issue countries will have to deal with because it will be one of the big legacies of this crisis.”
Sharan Burrow on the Work Reset: Designing inclusive, universal social protection will be key to change work for the better. "If you’ve got workers, employers and civil society at the table with governments at all levels, then you can design the kind of future that takes into account the right priorities for people, for the planet and, of course, for stable economies.”
Jennifer Morgan on the Green Reset: As with past crisis, COVID-19 provides the opportunity to shape the world we want to live in. “Companies have learned from the past and should take the opportunity to create a more circular zero-carbon economy for profit and for people."

She added: "Government funds need to be invested in people for long-term jobs. We have an opportunity to shift coal miners who have been working in those types of jobs into other ones over time. It can’t be an either/or. We need to be thinking about these things together.”

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