RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
| Subject: An economic hurricane is hurtling towards the South Pacific Mon Mar 30, 2020 8:58 pm | |
| At first glance, it might look as if the South Pacific would be the last place on earth to have to worry about the new coronavirus. The palm-fringed paradises of the self-styled Blue Continent are far from the teeming cities of the world and their swarming sicknesses. Only some 10 million people live in countries scattered across an oceanic expanse as big as all of Asia, Europe, Australia and the US combined. Surely geography took care of the social distancing here?
Not only that. The South Pacific states were smart. They were quick to cut off all international arrivals to protect themselves from the pandemic. Not quite quick enough – 114 people across six of the region's countries so far have been confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 nonetheless, with one death. The number of new cases across the South Pacific rose by 5 per cent on Monday.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/an-economic-hurricane-is-hurtling-towards-the-south-pacific-20200330-p54f6t.html |
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