ABU DHABI / WAM The Ministry of Health and Prevention conducted over 30,000 additional Covid-19 tests among citizens and residents over the past few days, resulting in the detection of 490 new cases. The ministry also announced full recovery of 83 patients after receiving necessary medical care and the death of three Asian nationals. The total number of recoveries has ...

Bloomberg In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Singapore was a global standard bearer for taming the deadly illness. Now it’s home to Southeast Asia’s largest recorded outbreak and is racing to regain control. One reason behind this reversal can likely be traced back to six days in February, when the earliest sign of what would become an explosion ...

Bloomberg As the outlook for Indian corporate profits grows increasingly murky under the influence of the coronavirus pandemic, analysts are hunkering down for a protracted series of forecast cuts. Asia’s third largest economy is set for a near-complete disruption of economic activity for at least 40 days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended a nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread ...

Bloomberg Heritage Foods and Parag Milk Foods are almost doubling in market value as sales of packaged milk pick up pace with Indians stocking up to survive the world’s biggest lockdown. The nation is the largest producer and consumer of milk, pouring it liberally into sugared teas and coffees, as well as using derivatives like ghee, curd, and cottage cheese ...

Bloomberg Thailand may ease its partial national lockdown starting from early May in provinces that are free of novel coronavirus infections. Only provinces clear of the pathogen for two weeks would be eligible, Kamnuan Ungchusak, an adviser to the nation’s health minister, told reporters. The proposal will undergo further evaluation, he said. The Asian nation is under a state of ...

Bloomberg Visitors to Japan in March slumped to levels not seen since Japan’s economic heyday in the 1980s after the coronavirus pandemic shut down global travel, an early sign the impact the drop will have on retailers that thrived on tourist spending. Visitors in March fell 93% from a year earlier to 193,700 people, the steepest drop on record, figures ...

Bloomberg Indonesia is hiring tankers to store refined fuels at sea as it seeks to take advantage of plunging prices of oil products such as gasoline and diesel. State-owned PT Pertamina has provisionally chartered at least three long-range tankers to store clean fuels, said people with knowledge of the matter. The move comes as Indonesia, one of Asia’s biggest refined ...

Bloomberg Sasol Ltd’s shares, down more than 80% in 2020, are trading as if the market expects years of bad news around oil and that the South African fuel and chemicals giant will struggle to escape its balance sheet constraints. Old Mutual Investment Group doesn’t share that pessimism, said Meryl Pick, a money manager who helps oversee the firm’s 10 ...

Bloomberg Germany’s solar panels produced record amounts of electricity, exacerbating market forces that were already hammering the profitability of the country’s remaining coal plants. Gin-clear skies over central Europe helped photovoltaic plants produce 32,227 megawatts on April 20, beating the previous record on March 23. Bright conditions are expected to continue this week, according to Germany’s DWD federal weather service. ...

Bloomberg The oil and gas industry shed nearly 51,000 drilling and refining jobs in March, a 9% reduction that is likely to get worse as futures prices fell into negative territory Monday. March’s job losses rose by 15,000 when ancillary jobs such as construction, manufacturing of drilling equipment and shipping are included, according to BW Research Partnership, a research consultancy, ...