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The pandemic playbook

Bloomberg Equality
Bloomberg

One thorny topic in the age of Covid-19 is how governments should regulate travel, and travelers, especially when it comes to nations with higher infection rates. The reaction in some cases can smack of xenophobia and authoritarianism. Zimbabwe, having seen contagion from South Africa and Botswana, is locking all returnees in containment camps. Cyprus, wary of Sweden because it continued business as usual while the virus spread, has barred Swedish citizens from entering. The Swedish government has protested, calling the rule discriminatory.

Countries worldwide are also deciding when to reopen public spaces and shuttered industries, which without a universal playbook, is leading to some peculiar decisions. Scotland will allow visits to parks, which with social distancing seems perfectly doable. Switzerland will allow visits to prostitutes, which by definition does not. "There are certainly personal contacts, but a concept of protection seems possible," explained Swiss Health Minister Alain Berset. "I am well aware of the bizarre aspect of my answer." —Philip Gray

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More than 100,000 Americans have died of Covid-19, far more than any other nation. The elderly have been most affected, though infected children now appear to be at risk of complications.

The number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits fell, an unexpected sign of people getting back to work. Many in the U.S. who have kept their jobs have still lost pay. Still, tens of millions remain out of work on a scale comparable to the Great Depression.

States cannot fully reopen if child care centers remain closed.

Working mothers in the U.K. are disproportionately more likely to have lost their jobs or scaled back hours during the pandemic. They're also more likely to be responsible for child care. Together, these facts threaten women's progress in the workplace.

In India, 12 million people are expected to be pushed into extreme poverty by pandemic-induced shutdowns.

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Such shutdowns have changed lives all over the world, but not in the same way everywhere. While Chinese drivers are back on the roads in force, Americans are just starting to go about their business again behind the wheel. 

A microcosm of the destruction and recovery 

Numbers tell one side of a story. Individuals tell another. Bloomberg Businessweek spoke with seven business owners in the Pike/Pine corridor of Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood to learn how they have been affected by the novel coronavirus, government restrictions and changes in consumer behavior. For the next year, the magazine will report on how these folks fare. One of them, the proprietor of a coffee shop, jokes that his business is "too small to fail."

 

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