Asian Insider, March 20: Airlines in trouble, Asia struggles to minimise people contact, Italy beats China in Covid-19 deaths, Delhi rapists hanged

Hi,

Asian airlines in trouble, the region struggles to get people to stay indoors, Italy beats China in the number of Covid-19 deaths, US economy worries, Delhi bus rape and murder convicts hanged, the Olympic torch arrives in Japan, and more.

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Cathay Pacific Airways said it will cut passenger capacity by 96 per cent in April and May as coronavirus related lockdowns continue across the world. The airline, which suffered a drop in bookings last year due to pro-democracy protests, has already asked several staff to go on unpaid leave.

Cathay Pacific is not alone. Singapore Airlines has said it is slashing its capacity by half till the end of the month, while Jetstar Asia has announced it is grounding its entire fleet of 18 Airbus 320s till April 15. Australia's biggest airline Qantas, meanwhile, said yesterday it will halt all international flights later this month. Canberra's other main carrier Virgin has already shut its overseas services due to the virus pandemic.

Aviation observers say the unprecedented crisis might well see many more airlines going bankrupt. The International Air Transport Association has said the industry needs state aid and bailouts of as much as US$200 billion to survive, but those that are coming forward are attaching conditions to the aid.

Densely populated Asia was struggling to enforce its stay at home orders and prevent big groups of people from coming together. Measures have ranged from imposing curfew to making appeals, but people are resisting the orders - to pursue their faith or simply to meet their family.

A number of mosques in Jakarta disregarded appeals by Governor Anies Baswedan to cancel Friday prayers for two weeks, even as the country released its latest mapping results that suggested that more than half a million could have had possible contact with Covid-19 suspects. The disclosure comes just after the government succeeded in cancelling a major religious gathering on Thursday, for which over 8,000 people had already collected.

India announced a one-day curfew on Sunday to encourage people to keep their distances but officials in Uttar Pradesh are still trying to figure out how to dissuade hundreds of thousands of Hindus from travelling to the state for a nine-day celebration of Ram, one of the Hindu religion's most revered gods.

In China, where the growing concern now is of imported cases, the country and its officials are having a trying time ensuring that those coming in keep to the rules set out for social distancing. Some have lied on their health declaration forms or tried to take fever suppressants to be able to travel to their preferred destination. While, an Australian Chinese woman under quarantine ended up getting fired from her job after she refused to wear a mask while jogging.

And in Malaysia, the King himself stepped out to see the compliance with the country's restricted movement order.

Countries in Asia continue to watch anxiously as cases of new infections spiral in the West. The death toll in Italy due to the coronavirus infections rose to 3,405 on Thursday, surpassing the total of 3,245 in China.

The global total, meanwhile, spiralled to over 242,000 infections and over 10,000 deaths raising fresh concerns about how long the pandemic will prevail and how bad will it get. UN chief Antonio Guterres has warned that a global recession,"perhaps of record dimensions", was a near certainty.

In Asia, where many countries continue to grapple with the issue, fears of a possible rebound ensured many countries remained on guard. China found no cases of domestically transmitted infections for a second day in a row but infections from abroad hit a new daily record.

The United States faces a dilemma: crack down with draconian social distancing measures or hold back to give the economy room to breathe. Dr Saad B. Omer from the Yale Institute for Global Health and Dr Danny Quah, Dean of the LKY School of Public Policy, discuss the Trump administration's handling of the Covid-19 crisis with ST's US Bureau Chief Nirmal Ghosh, in the latest episode of the Asian Insider video series.

Justice was finally delivered in a 2012 rape and murder case of a young woman on a bus as the four men convicted of the charges were hanged today morning. The case had shocked the world and drew attention to the country's appalling record on crimes against women.

The mother of the victim dubbed Nirbhaya - the fearless one - by the Indian press, applauded the move. "Today, justice has been done after seven years," she told reporters outside the prison.

OLYMPIC FLAME ARRIVES IN JAPAN: The aircraft carrying the Olympic flame arrived at Japan Air Self-Defence Force's Matsushima base, as it remained unclear if the Games will be held. Japan has been keen to hold the games but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been cautioned otherwise by world leaders. The plane with the torch arrived nearly empty after the Tokyo 2020 organising committee decided not to send a high-level delegation that was originally to have included its chief, Yoshiro Mori, and Olympics Minister Seiko Hashimoto.

SOFTBANK SEEKS US$10 BILLION TO SUPPORT VISION FUND COMPANIES: Softbank is reportedly in talks to raise US$10 billion to support some of the companies it works with that have been impacted by the coronavirus. Softbank's Vision Fund, a US$100 billion investment vehicle, counts WeWork, DoorDash Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc, in its list of startups it has supported.

ASEAN SUMMIT POSTPONED: Vietnam, Asean's chair this year, has said that the 10-member grouping's annual meeting that was due to be held from April 6 to 9, has been postponed until end-June.

AIRASIA CLEARED IN AIRBUS SCANDAL: Malaysia's AirAsia Group has said that an internal inquiry into corruption allegations by Britain's Serious Fraud Office has found that its procurement process with Airbus was robust and justifiable. AirAsia earlier this year was embroiled in allegations that Airbus's US$50 million (S$72.1 million) sponsorship of a now defunct sports team, jointly owned by two top AirAsia executives, influenced the group's decisions on aircraft acquisition.

That's it for today. Thanks for reading. Stay safe and we'll be back with you on Monday.

Shefali