AUSTRALIA - The coronavirus pandemic will bankrupt almost all of the world's airlines in a matter of weeks, Australian aviation experts say. With passengers scrambling to cancel their flights and carriers grounding their services, airline analysis and consulting firm CAPA Centre for Aviation warned most airlines worldwide will be bankrupt by May unless urgent action is taken. 'As the impact of the coronavirus and multiple government travel reactions sweep through our world, many airlines have probably already been driven into technical bankruptcy, or are at least substantially in breach of debt covenants,' CAPA said in a statement on Monday. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has advised Australians to reconsider overseas travel and all international arrivals will be forced to self-isolate for 14 days as COVID-19 continues to spread across the globe.

UK - Over a million people should stay inside their homes for 12 weeks and everyone else must avoid going out, Boris Johnson told the nation yesterday. In dramatic actions not seen since World War Two, the PM drastically ramped up Britain's battleplan - shutting down mass gatherings and urging everyone to stop non-essential travel and contact with others.

USA - The coronavirus is here. But fear not.

Mass panic is also here. Fear.

I’m a doctor and an infectious diseases specialist. I’ve been at this for more than 20 years seeing sick patients on a daily basis. I have worked in inner-city hospitals and in the poorest slums of Africa.

HIV-AIDS, Hepatitis, TB, SARS, measles, shingles, whooping cough, diphtheria … there is little I haven’t been exposed to in my profession. And with the notable exception of SARS, very little has left me feeling vulnerable, overwhelmed or downright scared. I am not scared of COVID-19.

UK - Thousands of shops, pubs and restaurants face going bust after the Prime Minister's coronavirus crackdown on socialising last night. Boris Johnson urged the public to 'avoid pubs, clubs, theatres and other such social venues', saying 'now is the time for everyone to stop non-essential contact with others'. The guidelines mean the income of thousands of businesses could collapse overnight, forcing many to close with the potential loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs. Shops have already suffered a massive drop-off in customers as numbers fell by a third at the weekend. This continued yesterday, with the normally packed Bluewater shopping centre in Kent, for example, near empty. The country's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty has warned the coronavirus crisis could last for 'weeks or months', adding: 'This is going to be a marathon, not a sprint.'

USA - The coronavirus has caused the worst percentage drop on the US stock market since Black Monday in 1929 as recession fears increase. The Dow Jones ended trading with a 2,997 points drop to register its worst drop in history due to the deadly contagion. The stock market suffered a late plummet as it fell by 12.94 percent while the S&P 500 index also was severely hit. Overall, the S&P 500 Index has shed 324 points to 2,386 points - a 11.98 percent drop - as the stock market faces its worst day in since the first Black Monday. Goldman Sachs strategists said: "The coronavirus has created unprecedented financial and societal disruption." The US central bank said: “The coronavirus outbreak has harmed communities and disrupted economic activity in many countries.

USA - Officials across the country curtailed many elements of American life to fight the coronavirus outbreak on Sunday, with health officials recommending that groups of 50 or more don’t get together and a government expert saying a 14-day national shutdown may be needed.

EUROPE - Coronavirus hysteria in Europe continues as Poland's shut frontiers cause huge traffic jams in Germany and Ukraine - while Serbia and Slovakia went into lockdown and Portugal closed its border with Spain. Popular cities across the Continent - from Spain and Germany to Ukraine and Serbia - resembled ghost towns as residents spooked into self-isolation refrained from visiting bars, cafes, restaurants, and shops. Chaotic scenes along the Polish frontiers with Frankfurt emerged, as hundreds of travellers were denied entry along the River Ober into western Poland, while others were tested for Covid-19 by Border officials. Hundreds of vehicles lining the roads from Ukraine into Korczowa, southeastern Poland, were denied entry, causing massive queues, after the Polish Government closed its borders to foreigners. In Spain, long lines for food and police patrols marked the first day of a nationwide quarantine. France has closed all its bars, cafes, and restaurants, amid coronavirus hysteria.

USA - Right now, most Americans are simply fed up. The combination of myriad, simultaneous crises (coronavirus pandemic, the stock market free fall, election hacking and freakish weather events), a peevish hyperpartisan Congress that is stalled, and an increasingly politicized and hysterical opinion-based media have created a vicious and anxiety-ridden culture. And it doesn’t stop there — internet algorithms on the three biggest social media platforms, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, sort us into tribes and pit us against each other, adding further to our society’s chaos. Top it off with the Donald Trump ad hoc style of presidential leadership, which the comedian John Mulaney described as “like there’s a horse loose in a hospital,” and it feels intolerable. In response, we are turning on each other.

USA - It seems, the more there is written about the causes of the Coronavirus – the more the written analyses are overshadowed by a propaganda and fear-mongering hype. Questions for the truth and arguments for where to look for the origins and how the virus may have spread and how to combat it, are lost in the noise of wanton chaos. But isn’t that what the “Black Men” behind this intended pandemic want – chaos, panic, hopelessness, leading to human vulnerability – a people becoming easy prey for manipulation? Today WHO declared the coronavirus COVID-19 a “pandemic” – when there is not the slightest trace of a pandemic. A pandemic might be the condition, when the death to infection rate reaches more than 12%. In Europe, the death rate is about 0.4%, or less .China, where the death rate peaked only a few weeks ago at about 3%, is back to 0.7% – and rapidly declining, while China is taking full control of the disease…

USA - Figures come from slides from a presentation by Dr James Lawler, a University of Nebraska Medical Center professor and hosted by AHA. He said figures are a 'best guess' estimate that could be a lot higher. They show the spread of the deadly disease could be far worse than officials claim, with the crisis 10 times greater than a severe flu season. The shock figures fly in the face of claims made by President Trump who has maintained on many occasions that the risk to Americans is 'low'. Documents from a leading doctor show US hospitals should be preparing for 96 million coronavirus infections and nearly half a million deaths from the outbreak. The spread of the deadly disease could be far worse than officials claim, with 480,000 Americans expected to die from the virus and 4.8 million hospitalized, according to a presentation hosted by The American Hospital Association (AHA) in February.

USA - Before Friday, Devra Torres saw some houses of worship around the country being shuttered for fear of spreading the coronavirus and considered it "extreme." People shouldn't be "left alone" without Communion or confession, said Torres, who has gone to Mass every day for decades. Then came news Thursday that the Archdiocese of Washington was calling for parishes to be closed as well, including St Mark's, to which the 55-year-old freelance editor walks each day at noon to worship. And then came Friday, Torres' final Mass - at least for now. "I feel sad. It may seem fanatical to some, but for me this is a very special time of connection with God every day," Torres, who went Friday morning with her 11-year-old son, said of the closures that right now are scheduled through March 27. Catholics, she noted, "believe Jesus is literally present in Communion. You can't get that on TV."

UK - Elderly Britons may be told to self-isolate for four months under the government’s “wartime-style” effort to combat the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus. The government of the United Kingdom is expected to impose a swathe of new measures to fight the further spread of the virus and to prevent the National Health Service (NHS) from “falling over” during the peak of the epidemic. Within the next 20 days, those over the age of 70 will be told to self-quarantine in their homes or care homes for up to four months, a Government source told ITV. Boris Johnson’s government is concerned that the quarantine will lead to the death of elderly people from neglect, and will call on friends, neighbours, and relatives to help older people during their isolation.

UK - Coronavirus’s economic danger is exponentially greater than its health risks to the public. If the virus does directly affect your life, it is most likely to be through stopping you going to work, forcing your employer to make you redundant, or bankrupting your business.

USA - Wherever we look, tensions and divisions exist in society that would have been hard to imagine even ten years ago. And the issues that tear us apart are numerous: the growing influence of ‘identity politics’, whereby people form narrow and rigid alliances defined by their race, sexuality or cultural background; the omnipresent influence of social media; the fanatical intolerance of animal rights activists; the rise of Islamic terrorism; the chaotic state of British politics following the EU referendum.

USA - White House Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro confirmed Wednesday the administration is working on an executive order to eliminate the government’s reliance on foreign-made medical supplies. The “Buy American” order comes on the heels of concerns expressed by senators during their Tuesday meeting with President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill. Republican Florida Senator Marco Rubio said that during the meeting on easing coronavirus-related financial pressures on Americans, he asked Trump to support the Senate’s “efforts to invest in diversifying our supply chain, especially in pharmaceuticals and medical equipment.” The order would prevent federal agencies from purchasing medical supplies, including face masks, gloves and ventilators, from China.