**** SATURDAY/SUNDAY, MARCH 28 - 29, 2020 ~ VOL. CCLXXV NO. 73 WSJ.com HHHH$5.

WSJ

THEWALLSTREETJOURNALWEEKEND

THE

CORONAVIRUS

PANDEMIC

The U.S. surpasses 100,

confirmed cases, A

MIT project will track

patients via their phones, A

Italy’s slow progress is a

warning to the West, A

How Will The Pandemic

Change Our World?

REVIEW

A Guide to

Superior Slumber

OFF DUTY

aise with his team “thanks to

the wizardry of modern tech-

nology.”

The 55-year-old’s diagnosis

raises questions about whether

other senior British politicians

and officials leading the pan-

demic response have been in-

fected. Later, leading members

of his coronavirus team—

Health Secretary Matt Hancock

and Chief Medical Officer for

England Chris Whitty—said

they were isolating at home af-

ter Mr. Hancock tested positive

and Mr. Whitty said he had de-

veloped symptoms. The heir to

the British throne, Prince

Charles, said Wednesday he

had the virus.

The prime minister’s illness

Please turn to page A

PANIC ATTACK

Why market panics

happen—and what

investors can do

about it.B

Global Gold Rush Has Bankers

Searching for Bars

iii

Shortage spooks preppers and investors

alike; ‘looking through the cupboard’

It’s an honest-to-God

doomsday scenario and the ul-

timate doomsday-prepper mar-

ketisamess.

As the coronavirus pan-

demic takes hold, investors

and bankers are encountering

severe shortages of gold bars

and coins. Dealers are sold out

or closed for the duration.

Credit Suisse Group AG, which

has minted its own bars since

1856, told clients this week not

to bother asking. In London,

bankers are chartering private

jets and trying to finagle mili-

tary cargo planes to get their

bullion to New York exchanges.

It’s getting so bad that Wall

Street bankers are asking Can-

ada for help. The Royal Cana-

dian Mint has been swamped

with requests to ramp up pro-

duction of gold bars that could

betakendowntoNewYork.

With staff reduced at the

Royal Canadian Mint because

of the virus, the government-

owned company is producing

only one variation of bullion

bars, according to Amanda

Please turn to page A

ByLiz Hoffman,

Amrith Ramkumar

andJoe Wallace

Britain’s Boris Johnson

Tests Positive for Virus

LONDON—British Prime

Minister Boris Johnson be-

came the first leader of a ma-

jor government to announce

he has tested positive for the

new coronavirus, highlighting

a challenge many governments

mayfaceastheyseektocon-

front an unprecedented peace-

time crisis.

Mr. Johnson said his symp-

toms were mild and that he

would continue to lead the

country while he confined

himself to his residence for a

week. “I am working from

home,” said Mr. Johnson in a

video he posted online, adding

that he would continue to li-

BYMAXCOLCHESTER

ANDBOJANPANCEVSKI

Raju Sarker had been sick in his dormi-

tory for two days, staying away from the

Singapore construction site where he

worked. He had a headache and chills. His

stomach didn’t feel right. He was exhausted.

But on a phone call

with his wife on Feb. 5,

the 39-year-old put on

a brave face. She was

back home in Bangla-

desh, two months from

giving birth. Mr. Sarker,

hoping for a baby girl,

had been thinking

about what his firstborn would call him:

Baba, or perhaps Abba.

“Don’t worry,” he said, ending the conver-

sation in under two minutes. He didn’t tell

his wife he had borrowed $250 from his em-

ployer that morning to go to the hospital,

nor about his cough, persistent and draining.

The next day, he ignored her calls altogether.

He’d speak to her when he felt a little better,

he thought, and texted: “I’ll call you later.”

At the hospital, doc-

tors sent him straight

to the intensive-care

unit. A mysterious new

virus had emerged in

China and begun

springing up in neigh-

boring countries, in-

cluding Singapore. Mr.

Sarker didn’t know much about it, except

that since Lunar New Year in January, he

and his team, which installed information-

technology infrastructure in data centers

Please turn to page A

This article was reported byNiharika

Mandhanain Singapore,Drew

Hinshawin Warsaw,Kim Mackraelin

Ottawa, Eric Sylvers in Milan and

Suryatapa Bhattacharyain Tokyo, and

was written by Ms. Mandhana.

EXCHANGE

VATICAN/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK

EXTRAORDINARY: Pope Francis delivered Friday an ‘Urbi et Orbi’ blessing, usually given only at Christmas and Easter, praying to end the coronavirus outbreak.

It starts, most often, with a

cough or a sneeze.

Thousands of tiny, often in-

visible droplets of saliva or mu-

cus disperse in the air. You walk

by—within 6 feet of the of-

fender—and inadvertently in-

hale the droplets.

The novel coronavirus that

causes Covid-19 begins like

most other respiratory viruses.

But scientists are still studying

how the virus in some patients

progresses to the lungs, causing

viral pneumonia, difficulty

breathing, and even death.

The race to understand what

happens in the body when

someone gets infected comes as

global death tolls spiral, pa-

tients flood emergency rooms,

and hospitals clamor for sup-

plies. Doctors have been forced

to learn much about how the

virus works as they go.

There are some things scien-

tists know based on how simi-

lar respiratory viruses work.

That coupled with recent case

reports from patients in China

and Washington state have

given scientists a basic under-

Please turn to page A

BYSUMATHIREDDY

Researchers

Probe Ways

Infection

Attacks Body

Five Lives. Five Countries.

How Virus Swept the Globe.

Confusion and dread as loved ones fought a relentless pandemic

WASHINGTON— President

Trump ordered General Motors

Co. to sharply ramp up the

production of ventilators to

treat coronavirus patients,

turning to a wartime presiden-

tial power that he had been re-

luctant to use.

Mr. Trump on Friday in-

voked the Defense Production

Act, or DPA, which dates back

to the Korean War and gives

the president powers to re-

quire businesses to produce

BYMICHAELC.BENDER

ANDMIKECOLIAS

WASHINGTON—President

Trump signed a roughly $2 tril-

lion economic-rescue package

into law, hours after House law-

makers hustled back to the

Capitol to pass the aggressive

response to the coronavirus

pandemic that has staggered

the U.S. economy.

The bill is the largest relief

package in U.S. history and ex-

tends aid to many struggling

BySiobhan Hughes,

Natalie Andrews

andLindsay Wise

House-approved relief

package of $2 trillion

offers aid to combat

damage of pandemic

goods tied to national defense.

For weeks he had said that the

threat of invoking the DPA was

sufficient. Previously he lik-

ened using the DPA to nation-

alizing American business. He

reversed course Friday, saying

GM was “wasting time” in ne-

gotiations with the federal

government.

With the number of con-

firmed cases of Covid-19—the

disease caused by the new cor-

onavirus—topping 100,000 in

the U.S. on Friday, worries

about a ventilator shortage

have grown all the more ur-

gent.

GM was already working to-

ward wide-scale ventilator pro-

duction through a collabora-

tion struck last week with

medical-device firm Ventec Life

Please turn to page A

Trump Signs Record Stimulus Law

Americans through direct pay-

ments and expanded unemploy-

ment insurance. The package

provides loans and grants to

businesses, augments drained

state coffers and sends addi-

tional resources to sapped

health-care providers.

“I want to thank Democrats

and Republicans for coming to-

gether and putting America

first,” Mr. Trump said Friday in

the Oval Office. He added, in a

nod to the size of the package:

“I never signed anything with a

Tonit.”

Mr. Trump has told people

he wants his signature to ap-

pear on the direct-payment

checks that will go out to many

Americans in the coming

weeks, according to an admin-

istration official. The White

House didn’t comment.

Normally, a civil servant—

the disbursing officer for the

payment center—would sign

federal checks, said Don Ham-

mond, a former senior Treasury

Department official.

The measure passed the

Senate 96-0 earlier in the week

and had overwhelming support

in the House as well. But it

needed to clear one last hurdle

on Friday after Rep. Thomas

Massie (R., Ky.) tried to force a

recorded vote, arguing it would

be irresponsible to use a voice

vote on such a large bill. This

angered many fellow lawmak-

ers, who said making them

show up in person risked

spreading coronavirus and

Please turn to page A

President orders GM

to make ventilators,

invoking wartime act

as outbreak worsens

Alone in St. Peter’s Square, the Pope Streams a Prayer to the World for the Pandemic’s End

 Fed reviews ways to support

financing for states............... A

Trump orderedGM to
sharply ramp up the pro-
duction of ventilators to
treat coronavirus patients,
turning to a wartime pres-
idential power that he had
been reluctant to use.A

Major U.S. stock indexes
posted double-digit gains
for the week, but they sank
Friday and remain down
more than 20% in 2020.B

Measures to curbthe
coronavirus could lower
GDP in the U.S. and other
developed countries by a
quarter, the OECD said.A
The Fed is reviewingnew
ways to support financing
for state and local govern-
ments amid the pandemic.A

Boeing is setto emerge
as a big winner of the stim-
ulus package, even if the
company declines to seek
direct taxpayer help.B

China clearedGoldman
and Morgan Stanley to take
majority control of their lo-
cal securities businesses.B

The SEC is givingpublic
companies additional time
to file annual reports and
other major disclosures.B

What’s

News

CONTENTS
Books..................... C7-
Business News...... B
Design & Decor. D10-
Food......................... D6-
Gear & Gadgets D12-
Heard on Street...B

Markets..................... B

Obituaries............... A

Opinion.............. A15-

Sports....................... A

Style & Fashion D2-

U.S. News............. A2-

Weather................... A

s2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

All Rights Reserved

>

T

rump signeda roughly
$2 trillion economic-
rescue package into law,
hours after House lawmak-
ers hustled back to the
Capitol to approve the ag-
gressive response to the
coronavirus pandemic.A
The U.S. surpassed
100,000 confirmed cases of
the virus, led by a continued
jump in infections in New
York and in new hot spots
across the country.A

U.K. Prime Minister
Johnson became the first
leader of a major govern-
ment to announce testing
positive for the virus.A

The Trumpadministra-
tion is preparing to sus-
pend collection of import
tariffs for three months to
give U.S. firms financial re-
lief amid the pandemic.A

States are exploringways
to expand voting by mail and
early voting ahead of the
November election to make
sure balloting proceeds if
the pandemic persists.A

A retired Venezuelan
general surrendered to
U.S. counternarcotics au-
thorities a day after prose-
cutors indicted him.A

World-Wide

Business&Finance

NOONAN

MyCorona(orIsIt

Schmutz?)A

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