PENANG and SINGAPORE: The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, erupting in the background of a lethargic global economy, could turn out to be the single biggest crisis in a century. First reported in Wuhan, China, the disease has reached almost all countries. It has infected close to 1 million people and caused over 40,000 deaths as of this writing, and the figures keep climbing. It is a health catastrophe which, if not halted in its tracks, will be the most serious since the Spanish Flu of 1918 that killed over 50 million people.

The pandemic has triggered a market crash. Stock markets across the world have trended downwards despite various measures by governments to support the economy. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has warned that the economic recovery would take years. According to its Secretary-General Angel Gurría, the economic shock was already bigger than the financial crisis.

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