The World Health Organization said Tuesday that rushing to ease coronavirus restrictions will likely lead to a resurgence of the illness, a warning that comes as governments start rolling out plans to get their economies up and running again.
“This is not the time to be lax. Instead, we need to ready ourselves for a new way of living for the foreseeable future” said Dr. Takeshi Kasai, the WHO regional director for the Western Pacific.
He said governments must remain vigilant to stop the spread of the virus and the lifting of lockdowns and other social distancing measures must be done gradually and strike the right balance between keeping people healthy and allowing economies to function.
“As we move forward in this difficult time, our lives, our health system and approach to stopping transmission must continue to adapt and evolve along with the epidemic, at least until a vaccine or very effective treatment is found. This process will need to become our new normal,” Kasai said.
Border crossings
North American border-crossing limits are being extended to combat the spread of the virus, while some parts of Asia and Europe are seeing a gradual lifting of restrictions. Canada and Mexico have each agreed to extend restrictions on non-essential travel across their shared borders with the US for an additional 30 days. The restrictions originally began on March 21. The government says non-essential travel includes travel that is considered tourism or recreational in nature.
Vancouver transit
TransLink is temporarily laying off nearly 15-hundred Metro Vancouver workers as the region’s transit system loses $75-million each month because of COVID-19 restrictions. Yesterday’s announcement says 18 bus routes will be suspended by Friday, nearly 50 more will be cut by next month and service cuts are also planned for SeaBus, SkyTrain and commuter rail.
Ridership across Metro Vancouver has plummeted more than 80 percent due to stay-at-home and physical distancing orders aimed at halting the spread of the new coronavirus.
TransLink CEO Kevin Desmond says the cuts come with a commitment from the province that “near-regular” service levels will be restored by September.
Blowing smoke
Vancouver’s annual 4-20 celebration is underway but tens-of-thousands of marijuana lovers aren’t expected on the city’s Sunset Beach this year – instead they are being urged to mark the day at home.
Organizer Dana Larsen says a live, virtual celebration started at 11:50 a.m. Pacific time — because that marks 4:20 p.m. in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Larsen says the online event will continue at least until 4:20 p.m. on the West Coast and — to keep fans dialled in – he’s pledging to give away “a pound of cannabis” throughout the afternoon. Police say they’ll be watching the beach where as many as 100-thousand people gathered last year, in case people arrive this year, and they’ll be monitoring social distancing orders — to keep everyone safe.
Who else is there?
Donald Trump announced Monday that he plans to ban immigration into the United States amid the coronavirus pandemic. Trump tweeted, “In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!”
At least 22 million Americans are now out of work as tough measures to control the coronavirus outbreak wiped out 13.5 percent of the workforce. However, details of this latest order were not immediately clear as in an address to the nation last month Trump announced a ban on foreigners travelling to the United States from Europe. Travel from China was already banned, and the US-Canada border is closed. The administration also essentially shut down the nation’s asylum system last month. The ‘announcement’ came as the US death toll from the virus topped 41,000.
New York
The number of people dying from COVID-19 in New York state continues to slowly drop, with 478 fatalities tallied on Sunday. It was a third straight day of decreases and the lowest death toll since April 1, when 432 people died.
The state tally excludes more than 4,000 New York City deaths that were blamed on the virus but weren’t confirmed by a lab test. The total number of hospitalizations remained largely unchanged at more than 16,000 and the number of new admissions remained largely flat at above 1,300, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday at his daily briefing.
After weeks of increases in deaths and hospitalizations in the epicenter of the US outbreak, Cuomo said the big question now is how fast the descent will be if New Yorkers continue to abide by social distancing restrictions.
“Does it take two weeks for it to come down? Some projections say that. Does it take a month? Some projections say that,” Cuomo said. “The projections are nice, but I wouldn’t bet the farm on it.”
Trump and hotels
Donald Trump on Sunday pledged to look into helping hotels left ‘devastated’ by closures in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump who owns a number of hotels across the country – was asked about whether they will be offered help at his daily briefing.
After mentioning his “wonderful place” in Doral, Florida, Trump said the closure of hotels “is a big problem”. Asked about whether the small business relief would cover hotels, Trump said, “if it is owned by a big chain, that is devastating. If they have 200 hotels in the country and they are closed. We are going to be looking at it. It is a big problem. It is a lot of people employed.”
Democrats and Republicans are near agreement on approving extra money to help small businesses hurt by the coronavirus pandemic and could seal a deal early this week.
An agreement on help for small businesses would end a stalemate over Trump’s request to add US $250 billion to a small-business loan program established last month as part of a $2.3 trillion coronavirus economic relief plan. That fund has already been exhausted.
Democratic leaders want more money for small businesses but with additional safeguards to ensure that credit reaches businesses in underserved communities. They also sought more funds for state and local governments and hospitals, as well as food aid for the poor.
Trump said he hoped successful hotels with thousands of employees, “will be able to open up relatively quickly.”
According to The Washington Post, 17 Trump properties have closed due to the pandemic. The Trump Organization is estimated to be losing around $650,000 each day.
The Trump properties that remain open are operating at a “fraction” of their capacity.
Trump’s Virginia vineyard could be eligible for a federal bailout under the $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill he signed into law last month.
The fine print of the bill, which was passed by Congress on March 26, includes language that would make the winery eligible for aid extended to growers and producers of ‘specialty crops,’ which includes grapes used to make wine. The vineyard has limited the hours of its tasting room, and a hotel on the grounds has been closed through May 19.
After Trump refused to rule out using federal funds to help rescue his businesses, Democrats negotiated to add restrictions to the stimulus bill before it passed Congress preventing the president and his family from personally benefiting.
Trump has in the past managed to avail himself of relief funds:
• In 2016, the Wall Street Journal reported that his two New Jersey golf courses previously received an agriculture tax credit by growing hay and using grass-eating goats to help maintain the grounds
• In 2005, he received a $17 million insurance payment for hurricane damage at his private Mar-A-Lago club, though an Associated Press investigation in 2016 found little evidence of large-scale damage.
The hotel industry has been devastated by the slowdown in travel. Many hotels are closed. For the week ending March 21, occupancy rates plummeted 56 percent to an average of 30 percent. Last year, occupancy rates averaged near 70 percent.
Most US hotels are operated by franchisees, and 33,000 of the 56,000 hotels in the US are classified as small businesses. Those hotels will be eligible for loans from the Small Business Administration. The package also contains US $454 billion in loans for larger businesses that have been hurt by the virus.
Home again
The last scheduled repatriation flight for German and European citizens has arrived in Frankfurt from Lima, Peru, thus Lufthansa’s successful relief-flight program that brought home around 90,000 travellers stranded by the pandemic.
As of March 13, Lufthansa Group airlines operated a total of 437 special flights from 106 airports worldwide – from New Zealand to Chile – with Europe as the end destination. In the coming days, 11 more relief flights from the other Group carriers will follow. The governments of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium, in particular, but also tour operators and cruise lines, have ordered these return flights from Air Dolomiti, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Edelweiss, Eurowings, Lufthansa and SWISS.
Additionally, the Lufthansa Group operated 94 special cargo flights with relief supplies on board.
Delta and United sued over refunds
A class-action lawsuit filed in Georgia, alleges that Delta has embarked on “unfair, deceptive, and unjust conduct” by not upholding its own Contract of Carriage. The suit says the airline is making it “difficult, if not impossible, for consumers to receive any refund on pandemic cancelled flights.”
“Simply put, we find Delta’s actions in light of the pandemic utterly unacceptable,” said Steve Berman, managing partner of Hagens Berman.
The law firm has also filed a suit against United Airlines over a refusal to issue refunds.
“We intend to fight for their right to monetary relief. Americans are losing their sources of income at alarming rates. Vouchers just won’t cut it,” Berman added.
According to a group of lawmakers, airlines are holding onto about $10 billion worth of air travel that they will only issue in the form of credit vouchers. US Senators Edward Markey, Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal and Kamala Harris released findings of an investigation into the issue. They say only Allegiant and Spirit Airlines are issuing full refunds.
“If these companies released that money back to the public, it would provide a significant stimulus for struggling families,” the senators said in a statement.
Delta said it issued more than one million refunds, worth about US $500 million in March.
DMOs need relief
More than 80 US House members from both sides of the political aisle have signed onto a letter urging congressional leaders to provide relief for destination marketing organizations (DMOs) whose funding has been crippled by the coronavirus crisis.
Despite their pivotal contributions to local and regional travel economies, many DMOs were unintentionally left ineligible for coronavirus relief funding under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) because of their non-profit or quasi-governmental status.
The US Travel Association has been working with Congress to correct the problem, since DMOs will be vital to driving visitor, meeting, and convention traffic back into their jurisdictions once the worst of the health crisis is past and the moment of recovery is at hand.
“The travel economy has been devastated by the coronavirus, with more than one-third of the job losses occurring in the travel and hospitality sector,” said US Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow. “But travel simply will not be adequately prepared to help lead the recovery without the work of destination marketers, which are critical engines of economic development in their states, cities and regions.
Dow’s organization has called for other structural changes to enhance the effectiveness of the CARES Act, and for the much-needed replenishment of PPP funds.
Research compiled by the US Travel Association offers compelling evidence that tourism promotion is vital to the creation of jobs, better wages, and a higher quality of life in jurisdictions that invest in it.
“The actions we take now will have a significant impact on the speed and sustainability of our economic recovery,” reads the letter signed by House members, in part. “Much of the strength in the domestic travel and tourism sector can be attributed to statewide and regional DMOs. These organizations create and manage initiatives that fuel the economic support to drive tourism and visitor spending across the US”
The letter emphasizes that destination marketing is particularly crucial in smaller cities and regions: “While DMOs have been successful in bringing tourists to gateway cities like Los Angeles and New York, they also drive tourists to visit smaller or mid-size markets, generating billions of dollars in economic activity for these communities.
“However, the severity of the coronavirus’ economic disruption to domestic travel has threatened the financial viability of many DMOs.”
Is Norwegian looking for a stake sale?
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd has hired investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc to explore financing options that could include the sale of a stake in the company, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. Read it all HERE
The show must go on
The Venice Biennale has confirmed the dates for this year’s international film festival, from Sept. 2-12, despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The Biennale postponed and curtailed this year’s architectural biennale show, which will run from Aug. 29-Nov. 29. The Venice Biennale is the oldest among the world’s premier film festivals, and usually overlaps with the Toronto Film Festival. Cannes, which usually runs in May, has postponed but not cancelled this year’s edition.
Easing the rules
New Zealand will remain in a strict lockdown for another week before easing the rules a little to allow some parts of the economy to reopen. Starting next week, workers at some businesses such as construction and manufacturing will be able to resume their jobs.
Denmark took another step toward reopening society when hair salons, dentists, physiotherapists, tattoo parlours and driving schools, among others, were allowed to reopen Monday.
Some shops are reopening in much of Germany as Europe’s biggest economy takes its first step toward restarting public life after a four-week shutdown. Shops with a surface area of up to 800 square meters (8,600 square feet) are being allowed to reopen Monday, along with auto showrooms, bike shops and bookshops of any size, under an agreement reached last week between the federal and state governments.
Who will buy?
Boeing and some other US manufacturers are looking to restart some of their operations in the coming days amid pressure from Donald Trump to reopen the US economy. When they will be able to sell what they build is an open question.