Monday 20 April 2020

Stocks rally on hopes for economy to re-open

The S&P 500 rose 3 percent last week amid suggestions by US President Donald Trump and others that the country has “passed the peak” of the outbreak and the economy could start to re-open soon.

Still, the US COVID-19 death toll hit 40,461 on Sunday as confirmed cases reached 755,533.

Researchers at Harvard said that testing for COVID-19 in the US, currently at 150,00 per day, must go up to at least 500,000 people per day if the country wants the economy to open back up.

"If we can't be doing at least 500,000 tests a day by May 1, it is hard to see any way we can remain open," the researchers said.

Meanwhile, Italy, the country with the second highest death toll in the world after the US, reported another 433 deaths on Sunday, the lowest in a week, and the number of new cases slowed to 3,047 from a previous 3,491. The total death toll is now 23,660 while the total number of confirmed cases is 178,972.

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