New Delhi: The novel coronavirus pandemic continues to devastate countries across the world — the latest count is more than 17 million cases and more than 6.70 lakh deaths.

US President Donald Trump’s earlier mishandling of Covid has severely raised the cost of dealing with the economic crisis. Meanwhile, the pandemic is leading to democratic erosion in Latin America and airlines across the world struggle to convince people that it is safe to fly.

ThePrint brings you the most important global stories on the coronavirus pandemic and why they matter.

Trump’s blundering has raised the cost of dealing with the pandemic

The new trillion-dollar stimulus proposed by the US Senate Republicans has made it clear that US President Donald Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic has severely raised the “financial cost of dealing with it”, argues The New Yorker’s John Cassidy.

“By botching the initial response, discouraging the use of masks, and encouraging many states to reopen too early, the President and his allies at the local level have created a situation in which the economy is now teetering on the edge of a renewed slump,” argues Cassidy.

“Citing simulations from the statistical model by Moody’s of the U.S. economy, Zandi (Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics) presented me with an arithmetic formula. For every daily increase of ten thousand new infections recorded nationwide, he said, the economy needs an additional hundred billion dollars in stimulus spending,” he writes.

Declining democracy in Latin America following the pandemic

While the pandemic has devastated Latin America’s health systems and economies, it is also spelling doom for democracy in the region, reports the New York Times.

“Leaders ranging from the center-right to the far left have used the crisis as justification to extend their time in office, weaken oversight of government actions and silence critics — actions that under different circumstances would be described as authoritarian and antidemocratic but that now are being billed as lifesaving measures to curb the spread of the disease,” explains the report.

“The gradual undermining of democratic rules during an economic crisis and public health catastrophe could leave Latin America primed for slower growth and an increase in corruption and human rights abuses, experts warned. This is particularly true in places where political rights and accountability were already in steep decline,” it adds.

Possible Italexit? Political impact of the pandemic in Italy

Italy was one of the worst-hit countries in the world in the pandemic, with more than 35,000 deaths and millions having lost their incomes and business. This is creating a fertile ground for Italy’s anti-establishment politics and increasing the demand for the country to leave the European Union, reports G Zero Media.

“Italy’s economy, which has the second-highest public debt-to-GDP ratio in the EU, is set to shrink by at least 11.2 percent this year, according to the European Commission, the worst projection among all 27 EU member states.,” says the report.

“Making matters worse, poverty and inequality have long been surging in Italy, while upward mobility has sagged. Meanwhile, a fractious coalition government has failed to improve the lives of Italy’s shrinking middle class,” further notes the report.

Zimbabwe’s nurse strike is killing newborn babies

Seven babies were stillborn in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare, as the country’s nursing staff has gone on a national strike citing an acute lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other concerns, reports the BBC. This has overwhelmed the country’s maternity wards.

“A leaked government response to senior doctors, who wrote to complain about conditions and to threaten strike action, acknowledged ‘challenges’ in hospitals, an ‘increase in poor outcomes’ and a serious shortage of medical supplies because of a lack of foreign currency, but urged medical staff ‘to reconsider your intention of withdrawing services,’” notes the report.

“Two doctors with direct knowledge of the situation at Harare Central Hospital confirmed to the BBC that on Monday night eight Caesarean section operations were performed. Seven of the babies were stillborn,” it adds.

Pandemic success story Vietnam braces for an outbreak

For months, Vietnam was hailed as a major pandemic success story, given that the country hadn’t seen a single infection in more than 90 days. But now the occurrence of new infections in Vietnam’s two largest cities has got the officials worrying, reports the Nikkei Asian Review.

“The country was on high alert Thursday as the capital, Hanoi in the north, and Ho Chi Minh City, the southern commercial hub, both detected locally transmitted COVID-19 patients the day before,” notes the report.

All bars and large gatherings in the country have been temporarily closed and suspended. “The move was made after the city confirmed its first new coronavirus patient in three months, along with 87 suspected cases in people displaying a cough and fever as symptoms,” adds the report.

Coronavirus is taking on Southeast Asia’s unicorns

The coronavirus pandemic has severely hit Southeast Asia’s once thriving startup companies, especially the unicorns (startups valued at over a billion dollars), reports the Nikkei Asian Review.

“The coronavirus has brought a chill to the region’s startups, for years fueled by billions of dollars in venture capital from growth-chasing investors, including SoftBank Group’s controversial $100 billion Vision Fund,” explains the report.

“Fissures in the capital-fueled model that underwrote the boom are becoming exposed: Valuations are shrinking, venture capital-raising has brushed a seven-year low, and the unicorns for whom profit was a theoretical goal are suddenly being forced to make deep cuts and hard decisions,” it adds.

Huge surge in Australia’s Victoria

Regardless of the lockdown in Melbourne and other parts of Australia’s Victoria province, the region is seeing a huge surge in the number of coronavirus cases, reports the BBC.

“The state confirmed 13 new deaths and 723 new cases on Thursday – a 36% jump on the case record set on Monday. There are fears now that Melbourne’s six-week lockdown, which began on 7 July, will need to be extended. The spike meant Australia overall had its deadliest day in the pandemic,” notes the report.

“Due to a successful suppression of the virus in the first months of the pandemic, Australia maintains numbers far lower than many other countries – with about 16,000 cases and 189 deaths,” it adds.

Airlines are struggling to convince people that it is safe to fly

Airlines across the world saw an unprecedented hit after they were forced to stop their operations given the travel restriction during the pandemic. Now even as those restrictions are being lifted, the airlines are struggling to convince potential travellers that it is safe to fly, reports the Financial Times.

“An industry-commissioned survey of 4,700 air travellers highlighted this concern. According to Iata, 65 per cent of those interviewed said their biggest concern was sitting next to someone who might be infected. About 42 per cent listed using the toilet, while 37 per cent said they were worried about breathing the air in the plane,” says the report.

“But experts point out that the distinctive features of aircraft ventilation systems could reduce the hazards. The ‘replacement-rate’ — the number of times a volume of air equivalent to the volume of the cabin is removed each hour — is very brisk,” it adds.

What else we are reading:

North Korea Thinks He Brought Covid-19. The South Wanted to Arrest Him: New York Times

Germany tightens abattoir laws following virus outbreaks: Financial Times

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