April 28 coronavirus news

Spain lost thousands of jobs in the first quarter of the year, most of them in March, when rapidly increasing coronavirus infections prompted the government to declare a nationwide state of emergency and lockdown on March 14 that brought most businesses to an abrupt standstill.

The country’s active workforce shrank by 285,600 people in the first quarter, Spain’s National Statistics Institute reported on Tuesday. The unemployment rate rose to 14.4%, up from 13.8% in the fourth quarter of 2019.

The number of newly jobless was listed at just 121,000. But the Statistics Institute said "inactive" workers increased by 257,000 in the first quarter and "it's probable that many workers who lost their jobs were listed as 'inactive'" rather than unemployed.

The government-imposed lockdown affected only the final two weeks of the quarter, and the lockdown has been extended until May 9, suggesting job losses could increase further when data for the second quarter is released this summer.

The Statistics Institute said the jobless figures also don't show workers who are on a "temporary" layoff of up to three months on a government-backed benefit program, collecting up to 80% of their salaries.

The Socialist government has said repeatedly that it wants to avoid the mistakes of the 2008 financial crisis, which hit Spain hard. It has ordered that companies cannot use coronavirus as an excuse to fire workers.

But it's unclear when Spain's tourism sector, accounting for 12.3% of GDP and 12.7% of employment according to the Statistics Institute, will be able to re-open for business.

Black barbers across America are engaging in a heated debate over whether cities and states should lift coronavirus social distancing mandates that have forced many of their businesses to close indefinitely.

African Americans as a group are suffering the most during the Covid-19 pandemic, with higher infection and mortality rates than the general population. Barbers say black business owners, like many of them, are also disproportionately hurting financially from government shutdowns meant to stem the virus' spread.

Several shop owners said they can't afford to remain closed much longer. 

In African-American culture, barbershops are much more than places to get a haircut. Many are marketplaces where local vendors sell their wares and community centers where people gather for hours to discuss politics, sports and the news of the day. The unique folkways and stature of black barbershops have been the subject of iconic movie scenes, Hollywood film franchises, even an HBO television series.

Damon Dorsey, 59, president of the American Barber Association, a barber advocacy group whose estimated membership of 3,000 is about 30% black, said he has spent weeks talking with worried barbers nationwide since the pandemic began.

They're concerned about limiting the spread of Covid-19, but also want to "get back to making money," Dorsey told CNN Business. "All are struggling with the uncertainty of the moment," he said.

Read the full story here.

HSBC is ramping up the amount of money it is setting aside to cover bad loans as its profits plummet because of the pandemic. It is also suspending plans to lay off tens of thousands of staff.

The London-based lender on Tuesday said that pre-tax profit dropped to $3.2 billion in the first quarter, a 48% plunge compared to a year earlier.

The bank added that it increased its allowance for expected credit losses this year to as much as $11 billion — nearly $2 billion more than it had set aside at the end of last year. It said expected credit losses rose to $3 billion last quarter in part due to coronavirus. 

It also attributed its recent woes to the ongoing plunge in oil prices. 

The coronavirus outbreak first hit Asia, where HSBC derives the vast majority of its earnings. The lender has in previous quarters made almost 90% of its profit in the region.

Performance there was actually "resilient" compared to expectations, the bank noted. Profit in Asia fell about 25% in the first quarter, compared to steep losses in North America and Europe.

HSBC also said it is now hitting pause on parts of its vast restructuring plan, which had included a decision to cut 35,000 jobs and dramatically overhaul its business, to reduce uncertainty for employees.

The bank is also delaying part of its plan to shed $100 billion in assets, which is expected to help reduce restructuring costs for this year.

Read the full article here.

A coronavirus vaccine won’t be ready until the end of next year under the “most optimistic of scenarios," according to Pasi Penttinen from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)

“Vaccine development is a hugely complicated and expensive process,” he told Sky News, adding that there were multiple stages of human trials involved to make sure it was safe and effective.

“On top of that, you need to make sure in this kind of situation of your manufacturing capacity, which essentially is sufficient for the whole world.”

Penttinen is the head of the ECDC’s Influenza and other Respiratory Viruses Programme.

More people in the United Kingdom think the BBC is doing a good job covering the coronavirus pandemic than any other outlet, a survey by the Reuters Institute at Oxford University found.

Asked whether they thought each of the following British TV outlets were doing a good job, the response was:

The Guardian netted the highest approval rating among newspapers at 25%, while the Mail came in at 10% and The Sun at 6%.

The Mail and The Sun had more people saying they were doing a bad job (22% and 24% respectively) than good. 

The news media overall got a 37% “good job” rating in terms of its response to the coronavirus, higher than technology companies but far behind the National Health Services which across the political spectrum had a 92% approval rating. The UK Government garnered a 54% approval rating.

The institute said the survey was conducted between April 10-14 from an ongoing online panel consisting of a representative sample of the UK population.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) estimates that there could be up to one billion coronavirus infections in crisis-affected countries unless swift action is taken to curb its spread. 

In a worst-case scenario, it warns that could result in up to 3.2 million deaths.

“We are still in the critical window of time to mount a robust preventative response to the early stages of Covid-19 in many of these countries and prevent a further perpetuation of this epidemic globally.” 

In a statement, the IRC said it had compiled the estimates based on modeling and data produced by Imperial College London and the World Health Organisation.

The Imperial College London report referenced by the IRC modeled mortality rates under different suppression policies. It considered variables such as a country’s economy, population demographics, and estimated health care capacity.

The 34 crisis-affected countries the IRC refers to are: Afghanistan, Burundi, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Chad, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, DRC, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Greece, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Mali, Myanmar, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, Venezuela and Yemen.

Tokyo 2020 President Yoshiro Mori says if the pandemic is not over by next summer, the Games will be canceled, according to an interview published Tuesday in Nikkan Sports.

It is the strongest statement so far on the possibility of canceling the Games from the organization, which has routinely said it was focusing on plans to hold the Olympics next year as the outbreak of Covid-19 grew into a pandemic.

The Olympic and Paralympic Games originally planned for this summer in Tokyo were rescheduled to start from July 23, 2021.

Nikkan Sports quoted Mori responding to a question about another postponement of the games if the pandemic was not over by next summer: 

Mori reiterated Tokyo 2020 was still working towards holding the Games and that they would be more significant than others. “The Olympics would be much more valuable than any Olympics in the past if we could go ahead with it after winning this battle,” he told the publication. “We have to believe this otherwise our hard work and efforts will not be rewarded.

Tokyo 2020 spokesperson Masa Takaya's told media Tuesday that Mori’s comments “were his own thoughts.”

When questioned about Mori’s remarks, the Tokyo 2020 public relations office responded to CNN in a statement saying, “there are variety of insights opinions around the possibility of hosting games next year.”

“The mission of the organizing committee is to prepare for the stage for the Games next year. We understand there are variety of opinions, however, there are some experts who say it's too early to make a judgment whether to be able to hold the Games,” the statement added.

This post has been updated to include Tokyo 2020's response to CNN.

Hoping to get a better idea of how many people have previously been infected with the virus, officials in the US have begun asking asymptomatic residents to test for antibodies.

Los Angeles County will expand coronavirus testing Tuesday to include delivery drivers, rideshare drivers, and taxi drivers even if they're asymptomatic, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said.

Boston Mayor Martin Walsh said 1,000 asymptomatic residents will undergo diagnostic and antibody testing by Friday to evaluate exposure to the virus in the city. 

And beginning Tuesday, health workers will start visiting randomly selected homes in two of Georgia's largest counties to conduct antibody testing through blood samples.

In New York, about 15% of the 7,500 people who have been tested in the state's antibody study have tested positive, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. 

But the former acting director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told medical news website Stat on Monday those tests are "not ready for prime time."

"As we learn whether that means you are protected in the future, there could be value in that," Dr. Richard Besser told Stat reporter Helen Branswell about the tests, but "the science isn't there yet to be able to say what those tests mean."

"I worry that people will get a false sense of security and they can change their behavior based on the results of that test, or have a false sense of concern if it's a test that isn't detecting protections that they may actually have," Besser said.

Read the full story here.

The number of coronavirus-related deaths in England and Wales up to April 17 is 54% higher than the UK government’s daily updates for the corresponding period, according to new figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS).

According to the ONS, there were 22,300 coronavirus-related deaths in England and Wales up to that date that were registered by April 25.

By comparison, the government’s daily update from the Department of Health and Social Care only accounts for coronavirus deaths in hospitals and doesn’t take into account the lag in reporting some deaths. The corresponding number released by the DHSC for April 17 is 14,451 for England and Wales.

This post has been updated to correct the number of coronavirus-linked deaths reported by the ONS.