International News

Bloomberg When government official Kiran Dighavkar heard that a 56-year-old man who’d recently died in the Mumbai suburb of Dharavi had tested positive for Covid-19, he knew his next moves would determine the trajectory of the outbreak in India’s commercial capital. The man, who died on April 1, lived with seven members of his family in a 400 square foot ...

Bloomberg Singapore increased its cash payout to individuals and announced additional steps to save jobs as the city-state prepares to severely curtail activities to contain a spike in coronavirus cases. The third virus-related stimulus package in two months will cost S$5.1 billion ($3.6 billion), taking the nation’s total virus relief to almost S$60 billion, or 12% of gross domestic product, ...

Bloomberg Shares of Biolidics Ltd jumped as the Singapore-based medical device manufacturer said its rapid test kits for Covid-19 were approved for sale in the European Union. The stock rose as much as 12% in early trading after the firm announced on Monday that it received confirmation for CE marking on April 3. CE marking is a notification process to ...

Bloomberg The deadly coronavirus may infect as many as 95,000 people in Indonesia by next month before easing, a minister said, as authorities ordered people to wear face masks to contain the pandemic. The dire forecast is based on a projection by the nation’s intelligence agency, University of Indonesia and Bandung Institute of Technology, finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati told ...

Bloomberg India put a total ban on exports of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug that US President Donald Trump has touted as a “game changer” in the fight against Covid-19. Exports of the drug and its formulations have been prohibited “without any exceptions” and with immediate effect, India’s Directorate General of Foreign Trade said in an order on its website. The ...

Bloomberg Singapore will unveil additional support for businesses and households on Monday, less than two weeks after announcing a S$48 billion ($33.4 billion) stimulus package to buffer the impact of the coronavirus. The government plans to waive foreign worker levies for April and boost an existing jobs support programme, deputy PM Heng Swee Keat said in a Facebook post. The measures ...

Bloomberg PM Narendra Modi’s call to Indians to switch off lights on Sunday evening for nine minutes and instead use candles to “challenge the darkness” of the coronavirus outbreak would mean blackouts for some citizens as utilities take steps to safeguard their equipment. Modi asked people to switch off lights at 9 pm. That may result in a sudden drop ...

Bloomberg Police in Australia’s New South Wales state will start a criminal investigation into a cruise ship that allowed people on board to disembark in Sydney last month after some passengers had reported flu-like symptoms, Commissioner Mick Fuller said. Detectives will be involved in the probe into the circumstances surrounding the docking of the vessel, Fuller said. Ten of the ...

Bloomberg Malaysia’s economy could contract this year as the country struggles with a month-long coronavirus lockdown and a steep fall in commodity prices. Gross domestic product could shrink as much as 2% this year or grow as much as 0.5%, Malaysia’s central bank said in its annual Economic and Monetary Review. The global pandemic has hit the country’s tourism sector ...

Bloomberg Government officials in China, the world’s biggest consumer and producer of rice, called on citizens not to hoard the grain after a recent ban on new export sales by Vietnam sparked concerns over global supplies. The country holds sufficient rice and wheat stockpiles for one year of consumption, while imports of the cereals are only about 2% of domestic ...