Source: McKinsey & Company

The COVID-19 pandemic  in Africa is already disrupting millions of people’s livelihoods, with disproportionate impact on poor households and small and informal businesses—and the pace of this disruption is likely to accelerate in the weeks ahead. Africa’s GDP growth in 2020 could be cut by three to eight percentage points. The pandemic and the oil-price shock are likely to tip Africa into an economic contraction in 2020, in the absence of major fiscal stimulus.

Policies that can help to sustain and improve health system performance, maintaining access and quality and improving cost-effectiveness :

Author: Francesco Giubilei

Since the birth of the European Union, there has been an intense debate about the possibility of creating a two-track Europe, divided between the Mediterranean nations and those of Northern Europe. Supporters of this solution argue that the differences between these two parts of Europe are irreconcilable, in terms of their lifestyle, in the way society is conceived, and especially in the mentality of citizens. The possibility of division first appeared in Greece during the 2008 crisis, and it now seems to be intensifying with the coronavirus emergency.

Author: Mathias Goldmann

Governments, economists and intellectuals have called for common European bonds or increased own EU funds to address the recession induced by Covid19. Unfortunately, the German government, joined by the other members of the “Frugal Four” (Austria, Finland, the Netherlands), has categorically rejected to look into any such measures .

Purpose and Use of Proceeds of Corona Bonds

The European Union's finance ministers have reached a deal on a 540 billion-euro rescue plan to support the continent's coronavirus-stricken economies.

Stephen M. Walt(Professor of international relations at Harvard University): The pandemic will strengthen the state and reinforce nationalism. Governments of all types will adopt emergency measures to manage the crisis, and many will be loath to relinquish these new powers when the crisis is over. COVID-19 will also accelerate the shift in power and influence from West to East.  South Korea and Singapore have responded best, and China has reacted well after its early mistakes.

Source: American Enterprise Institute (Authors: Scott Gottlieb, Mark McClellan, Lauren Silvis, Caitlin Rivers and Crystal Watson).

The jobs of at least 1,110,107 Europeans working in auto manufacturing are affected by factory shutdowns, as a result of the current crisis. This is out of a total of 2,6 million direct manufacturing jobs in the EU auto industry.

Note: (in parenthesis motor vehicles production lost)

Source: AECA

GERMANY

COVID-19 is spreading fast in multiple states in America, and has already resulted in 7,500 deaths and the U.S. government's response has fallen far short of the efforts even in much smaller countries like the U.K. or South Korea.

It would have been quite difficult to stop this from happening but not impossible. President Trump is responsible for the agencies in charge of disease control in the U.S., and he has utterly botched it.