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The IMF will offer grants to some of the world’s poorest nations, mainly in Africa and Asia, to allow them to cover their debts to the Washington-based multilateral lender, as it ramps up the global response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Greece has banned families and groups of friends from celebrating Orthodox Easter together on April 19 after experts warned the next 10 days would be critical to keeping the country’s coronavirus outbreak in check.
The Federal Reserve is scaling back its interventions in short-term funding markets, as strains that spread across the financial system on account of the coronavirus outbreak have eased.
The governors of New York and five other mid-Atlantic states will co-ordinate on a plan to reopen businesses and schools across the region once the coronavirus outbreak is under control.
In a half-hour televised address to the nation on Monday night, a contrite President Emmanuel Macron admitted the French government had been ill prepared for the crisis. He said there were signs the pandemic was beginning to stall but extended France’s lockdown for a further month.
Wells Fargo is advising some small business clients to “apply elsewhere” in case the government’s $350bn rescue programme is fully subscribed before the bank can work through a massive backlog of applications.
A White House spokesperson on Monday insisted Donald Trump had no intention of removing Anthony Fauci, the immunologist who has become one of the most trusted faces of the US coronavirus response. Dr Fauci has become the target of partisan warfare after President Trump hinted he was considering sacking him.
Countries must exercise caution and put human health first when making decisions about lifting lockdown measures, said doctors from the World Health Organization on Monday, adding that it would be dangerous for all countries to relax rules at the same time.
