We’re leading with this because it is so profoundly ridiculous and yet so manifestly typical of the lack of any reasoned thought or action by some government officials. The mayor of Orange County says World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has been deemed an “essential business” in Florida, and is allowing the company to resume live tapings of its shows in the state during the coronavirus outbreak.
A statewide stay-at-home order went into effect earlier this month in a bid to slow the spread of COVID-19, and while WWE was not initially viewed as essential like grocery stores and pharmacies it has since apparently become so and has been given the green light.
Canada
All non-essential businesses in Ontario will be closed until at least May 12 after Ontario extended its state of emergency for another 28 days.
Premier Doug Ford also says Ontario’s schools will not re-open on May 4. Ford says it is too soon to relax measures as the province continues to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ontario’s regional transit agency says ridership on its bus and rail network is down to approximately 33,000 people per day, a 90 percent decrease since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Metrolinx, which operates GO Transit in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, says ridership dipped to those levels last week and has stayed there as people continue to work from home and self-isolate. Will be updated.
United Nations
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is warning that the world is facing “a dangerous epidemic of misinformation” about COVID-19, with harmful health advice, wild conspiracy theories and hatred going viral.
He announced a U.N. initiative “to flood the internet with facts and science while countering the growing scourge of misinformation, a poison that is putting even more lives at risk.”
Guterres urged social media organizations to do more to counter the spreading global “misinfo-demic” and to “root out hate and harmful assertions about COVID-19.”
The U.N. chief said people around the world “are scared” and want to know what to do and where to turn for advice, and they need science, not “snake-oil solutions.”
Aviation
It’s a mixed day for US airlines. From an operations standpoint, the situation continues to deteriorate. But an agreement on a rescue package appears to be nearing.
The International Air Transport Association estimated Tuesday that passenger revenue this year will tumble $314 billion, a 55% plunge, from 2019. Two weeks ago, the IATA forecast a $252 billion drop.
The pandemic has compounded problems at Boeing, which is struggling to contain a crisis related to malfunctioning of its marquee aircraft, the 737 Max. Boeing dropped more than 300 planes from its order book in March. The company said Tuesday it delivered 20 commercial jets last month, less than half the 54 delivered in March 2019.
Traffic at US airports hit new lows daily, and fell below 100,000 last week for likely the first time since the jet age began. The Transportation Security Administration said it screened 90,510 people on Sunday, or 3.7% of the nearly 2.5 million people who passed through checkpoints on the corresponding Sunday a year ago.
The parent company of Polish airline LOT is pulling out of its takeover bid of for German vacation carrier Condor, a subsidiary of collapsed tour operator Thomas Cook, Condor said Monday.
The collapse of the deal leaves Condor, which has been profitable, and its 4,900 workers looking for a new way forward as the virus outbreak sharply reduces passenger traffic. Condor said that the company was “prepared for this scenario” and faced different options for future ownership, including carrying the business forward under a trusteeship. The airline has also applied for state help.
Cruise
Carnival is cancelling all North American cruises until at least late June. Cruises out of New York and San Francisco have already been cancelled for all of 2020, but late last month Carnival still hoped to resume North American operations in mid-May. The Miami company said it is focused on taking care of crew that remains aboard its ships and getting non-essential workers home.
Entertainment
Restrictions on large groups of people getting together have left businesses that require such gatherings, like movie theatres and concert promoters, scrambling to stay afloat.
Movie theatre chain Cinemark said will try to raise US$250 million in a private offering to cover mounting losses as its theatres sit empty due to the impacts of coronavirus.
Last week, concert and event promoter Live Nation Entertainment negotiated a new credit line of between $120 and $150 million with its lenders and announced that its executives would be taking pay cuts effective April 16.