(Reuters) – Here’s what you need to know about the coronavirus right now:
Continued easing as cases pass 3.5 million mark
Italy, Spain, Nigeria, Azerbaijan, Malaysia and Lebanon are among the countries easing some restrictions on Monday, including reopening factories, construction sites, hairdressers and libraries. The measures are of particular fanfare in Italy, which has had the longest lockdown in Europe.
Global coronavirus cases surpassed 3.5 million on Monday and deaths neared a quarter of a million, according to a Reuters tally.
New cases globally have been rising at a rate of 2%-3% over the past week, versus a peak of around 13% in mid-March, prompting many countries to begin easing lockdown measures. The loosening of restrictions has been controversial, however, as experts debate the best strategy to ensure there is no large “second wave” outbreak.
Trans-Tasman travel bubble?
New Zealand and Australia are discussing the potential creation of a “travel bubble” between the two countries.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will take part in a meeting of Australia’s emergency coronavirus cabinet on Tuesday, the Australian government said, stoking speculation that two-way travel could be permitted.
Australia and New Zealand have both reduced the spread of coronavirus to levels significantly below those reported in the United States, Britain and Europe. Both governments attribute their success to social distancing restrictions and widespread testing.
Agra shows how coronavirus can surge again
Best known for its 17th-century marble-domed tomb, the Taj Mahal, Agra was lauded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government as a template for India’s battle against COVID-19.
After confirming its first cases in early March, the city of 1.6 million people set up containment zones based on detailed household-level plans developed for polio control by the World Health Organization (WHO), screened hundreds of thousands of residents and conducted widespread contact tracing.
By early April, the northern city thought it had the virus beat. But a resurgence was already in the works, fuelled by attendees to a gathering of the Islamic missionary group Tablighi Jamaat in New Delhi in late March.
Agra now has around 600 coronavirus cases and 14 deaths, according to local authorities.
Back shopping with a vengeance…
From malls in Seoul to jammed expressways leaving the capital to South Korea’s southern vacation island of Jeju, shoppers and travellers crowded malls and beaches on the first long weekend since the country began easing coronavirus curbs last month.
With early-summer weather helping retail therapy return with a vengeance, the term “bobok sobi” – revenge shopping – has trended on the nation’s social media, as people rush to make purchases delayed by social-distancing rules.
At a rest area near Seoul heading into the long weekend, a woman sipping an iced latte said she would splurge on a cup every day during her holiday.
“I’m going to make up for the self-control I have been keeping up at home – I think I’ve had enough of self-isolating,” she said, but added, “I’m still going to wear a mask.”
…vs. #ditchyourstuff minimalism
In marked contrast to the euphoric spending seen in South Korea, for a growing number of Chinese hit by job losses, furloughs and salary cuts, the consumer economy has begun to spin in reverse. They are no longer buying – they are selling.
Instead of emerging from the coronavirus epidemic and returning to the shopping habits that helped drive the world’s second-largest economy, many young people are offloading possessions and embracing a new-found ethic for hard times: less is more.
“The coronavirus outbreak was a wake-up call,” said Tang Yue, a 27-year-old teacher whose wages have been slashed with the suspension of all the classes on tourism management she usually teaches.
The self-described shopaholic said she has sold items worth nearly 5,000 yuan on second-hand marketplaces online in the past two months, and has set her monthly budget at 1,000 yuan, including just one bottle of bubble tea.
(Compiled by Karishma Singh)
