Fed cuts rates over coronavirus economic impact as more countries report illnesses – By Andrea Shalal and Tetsushi Kajimoto (Reuters) / Mar 3 2020
WASHINGTON/TOKY0 — As the new coronavirus spreads in South Korea, Europe and the United States, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates on Tuesday in an emergency move to try to prevent a global recession with the virus taking a heavy toll on air travel, tourism and other industries.
Despite the Fed’s attempt to stem the economic fallout from the coronavirus, U.S. stock indexes were down more than 3%, safe-haven gold rose 3% and analysts and investors are questioning if the rate cut will be enough in the long run if the virus continues to spread.
In Iran, doctors and nurses lack supplies and 77 people have died, the highest number outside China. The United Arab Emirates announced it was closing all schools for four weeks.
The death toll in Italy, Europe’s worst-affected country, jumped to 79 on Tuesday, and Italian officials are considering expanding the area under quarantine. France reported its fourth coronavirus death, and Iceland, Indonesia, Ukraine and Argentina reported their first coronavirus cases, taking the global total to around 80 countries.
About 3.4% of confirmed cases of COVID-19 have died, far above seasonal flu’s fatality rate of under 1%, but the novel coronavirus can be contained, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.
“To summarize, COVID-19 spreads less efficiently than flu, transmission does not appear to be driven by people who are not sick, it causes more severe illness than flu, there are not yet any vaccines or therapeutics, and it can be contained,” World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva.
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