The Wall Street Journal - 21.03.2020 - 22.03.2020

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. **** Saturday/Sunday, March 21 - 22, 2020 |A

THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

distancing measures in other

countries.

The government on Friday

announced a few new restric-

tions, including closing public

parks, with some officials ex-

pressing worry that the lock-

down imposed March 10 is too

relaxed and that too many

people are still leaving the

house and mingling. The big

question is whether stopping

the spread of the illness will

require the strict confinement

of large populations in their

homes, as in the worst-af-

fected parts of China.

Italy’s lockdown measures

are due to expire on Apr. 3,

and some even on March 25,

but officials have indicated the

date will be extended.

Italy’s total confirmed coro-

navirus infections, the world’s

second-highest after China, rose

to 47,021 on Friday, an increase

of 15% from the day before.

Once again, most of the

day’s recorded deaths were in

Lombardy, the northern region

at the heart of the disaster in

Italy. A further 381 people

with the coronavirus died in

Lombardy, Friday’s data from

the Italian government

showed.

Lombardy, the wealthy re-

gion that includes Milan, ac-

counts for 47% of Italy’s total

infections but 63% of deaths.

Italy recorded the world’s

highest death toll in a day

from the new coronavirus on

Friday, adding to pressure on

the government to tighten a

lockdown that is showing little

sign of reining in the out-

break.

An additional 627 people

died in Italy, as total deaths in

the country’s epidemic hit

4,032, the most of any coun-

try, compared with 3,248 in

mainland China, where total

recorded infections have been

much higher.

The high death toll in Italy

reflects how the virus has

spread rapidly among its large

cohort of people in their 70s

and 80s, as well as the mount-

ing crisis in hospitals that can

no longer put all severely ill

patients in intensive care.

Across Europe, authorities

are watching whether Italy’s

nationwide quarantine mea-

sures succeed in slowing the

march of the virus. Italy’s

moves, which include shutting

down all but essential services

and ordering people to stay

home except for work or

health necessities, have be-

come the template for social-

ByGiovanni Legorano

in Rome andEric

Sylversin Milan

Italy Faces Mounting

Pressure as Toll Rises

Nuns wait outside the closed Monumental Cemetery of Bergamo.

PIERO CRUCIATTI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

In the U.S., the Federal Re-

serve has cut short-term inter-

est rates, revived asset pur-

chases and taken action to ease

funding strains in financial

markets. Lawmakers are debat-

ing a Trump administration

plan to send checks directly to

Americans as part of a $1 tril-

lion stimulus package to help

households and businesses.

But there are already signs

of mounting layoffs, with

malls, restaurants and hotels

closing in many areas of the

country.

The British plan, which

echoes policies already ad-

opted by other European

states, is aimed at avoiding

such layoffs, though econo-

mists say some increase in un-

employment is unavoidable as

the havoc wrought by the vi-

rus tips the country toward

recession.

Mr. Sunak, a former hedge

fund executive who has been

in the role of Chancellor of the

Exchequer for less than two

months, said that the govern-

ment will make an interven-

tion in the economy “unprece-

dented in the history of the

British state.”

He said the Treasury will

dish out cash to companies to

cover the cost of 80% of work-

ers’ wages provided they don’t

lay them off as the disease

rages.

The program will be up and

running before the end of

April, will run for at least

three months, and can be ex-

tended, Mr. Sunak said. Pay-

ments are capped at £2,

($2,871) a month. Firms that

need cash immediately can tap

banks for government-backed,

interest-free loans from Mon-

day, he said.

Mr. Sunak said the govern-

ment will finance the pay-

ments with additional borrow-

ing and didn’t put a ceiling on

the amount it is prepared to

spend. Economists at consult-

ing firm Oxford Economics es-

timated the bill for three

months would be around £

billion, depending on takeup.

Mr. Sunak also announced

that firms can defer payment

of value-added tax, a sales tax,

until the end of June, forgoing

for now around £30 billion in

tax revenue. He also increased

out-of-work benefits and said

the self-employed won’t need

to file a tax return until next

year.

Other European govern-

ments have taken similar steps

to aid companies and workers.

Germany has revived a finan-

cial crisis-era program to pay

workers forced to work part-

time or furloughed altogether.

In Denmark, the govern-

ment Sunday said it would pay

75%ofthewagesofworkers

in companies that had been

hard hit by the virus. The

Dutch government has an-

nounced a similar initiative,

which will cover 90% of wages

where businesses would other-

wise have to fire workers.

The fiscal package comes

after the Bank of England on

Thursday cut its benchmark

interest rate to 0.1%, the low-

est level since the central

bank’s foundation in 1694, and

said it would buy £200 billion

of U.K. government bonds to

support the economy and sta-

bilize jittery markets for ster-

ling-denominated assets.

LONDON—The British gov-

ernment stepped up its re-

sponse to the coronavirus epi-

demic, telling companies it

would foot the lion’s share of

their salary bills as long as

they hang on to workers, and

ordering all bars and restau-

rants in the country to close.

The broad package of mea-

sures, announced by Prime

Minister Boris Johnson and

Treasury chief Rishi Sunak,

marks another escalation in

world-wide efforts to fight the

disease and pave the way for

an eventual economic revival.

The salvo by U.K. policy

makers is aimed at preventing

mass layoffs and supporting

workers’ incomes as the coro-

navirus threat—and an inten-

sifying government squeeze to

contain it—shuts down chunks

of British business.

Mr. Johnson said as of Fri-

day all bars, pubs, restaurants,

cafes, gyms and theaters must

shut their doors, an effort to

slow the spread of a virus that

has infected almost 4,000 in

the U.K. and killed 177.

The prime minister’s deci-

sion marks another shift away

from an unorthodox strategy

that had so far avoided strict

measures adopted in other

countries. Mr. Johnson said the

escalation is needed “to push

down further on that curve of

transmission between us.”

He acknowledged Britons

may find it difficult. “We are

taking away the ancient, in-

alienable right of freeborn

people of the United Kingdom

to go to the pub,” he said.

The new measures augment

an economic-policy response

that has already included deep

interest-rate cuts and large-

scale asset purchases by the

Bank of England. The latest

steps add to fiscal commit-

ments that potentially could

reach £400 billion ($459 bil-

lion), or around 16% of the

country’s annual national in-

come.

“We’re going to defeat this

disease with a huge national

effort,” Mr. Johnson said at a

press conference.

BYJASONDOUGLAS

Britain Escalates Its Response

Cafe seats opposite the Houses of Parliament in London. The government ordered all eateries to close.

WILL OLIVER/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK

Thegovernmentsaid

itwillpaycompanies’

salarybills ifthey

hangontoworkers.

Jacob Sanchez

Diagnosed with autism

Lack of speech is a sign of autism.Learn the others at autismspeaks.org/signs.

wsj_ 20200321 _a 007 _p 2 jw 081000 _ 4 _a 00700 _ 17 f 7 df 7178 f 2020 .crop.pdf 1 21 - Mar- 20 06 : 03 : 47