China, with the exception of Hubei province, might be getting back to normal, the rest of the world is still bracing for a further outbreak of the coronavirus. Northern Italy shows remarkable similarities with the early weeks of the crisis in Wuhan: cramped medical facilities, expanding quarantine measure to stop the spread of the virus, and much uncertainty in countries and regions that still try to control the crisis. In China numbers of new patients are dropping, so – unless you might distrust those figures – its heavy-handed approach seems to be working at this list. But global stress on international economic relations seem far from over.
With all the justified criticism on the way China dealt the with coronavirus in the early weeks, the country did make some right choices later in the crisis as containment of the health issues was more important than keeping up the economy. More surprising it is that countries with a more developed health care system like Italy seem utterly unprepared for a major outbreak of the virus. Even a very solid country like Switzerland sees the number of coronavirus patients going up fast.
Other European countries and the US seem to be bracing for the march of the coronavirus and still have to prove they can follow the lead of China, who was able to limit the major outbreak to one province.
We did get some messages from some of our speakers who suggest their expertise in this field could generate some demand from clients outside China, but to be honest, those insights might be too late for countries and companies who have not yet been taking precautions for a major outbreak of the virus in their region or industry.
And while the delayed containers from China have started their journey to the rest of the world, it is still unclear what situation they might meet at the receiving end of their ride. Airline companies seem to have no plan to resume cancelled flights, as demand is still very low.
