A new strain of Coronavirus, COVID 19, is spreading around the world, causing deaths and major disruption to the global economy.

Responding to this crisis requires global cooperation among governments, international organizations and the business community, which is at the centre of the World Economic Forums mission as the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation.

The Forum has created the COVID Action Platform, a global platform to convene the business community for collective action, protect peoples livelihoods and facilitate business continuity, and mobilize support for the COVID-19 response. The platform is created with the support of the World Health Organization and is open to all businesses and industry groups, as well as other stakeholders, aiming to integrate and inform joint action.

As an organization, the Forum has a track record of supporting efforts to contain epidemics. In 2017, at our Annual Meeting, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) was launched bringing together experts from government, business, health, academia and civil society to accelerate the development of vaccines. CEPI is currently supporting the race to develop a vaccine against this strand of the coronavirus.

1. How COVID-19 is impacting the globe

COVID-19 is a serious disease and causes a wide range of problems from gastrointestinal disease (diarrhoea and nausea) to heart damage and blood clotting disorders. As one virologist pointed out for Agenda this week, it can also cause neurological symptoms in some patients.

Some patients have experienced brain inflammation or even stroke. According to other reports, COVID-19 patients have suffered from GuillainBarr syndrome, a neurological disorder where the immune system mistakenly attacks nerve cells, resulting in muscle weakness and eventual paralysis.

While more research is needed, these symptoms drive home the importance of taking this disease and its long-term effects seriously. Virologist Jeremy Rossman said this information also "highlights the continued importance of preventing viral transmission and identifying those who are, and have been, infected."

Public areas and urban environments could be transformed by coronavirus, according to a Reuters article. Social distancing could create green mazes in public parks while cities could be designed to be more compact to ensure that residents can access goods and services more easily.

"We are in a very experimental stage," said architect Harm Timmermans. "There will be a lot of trial and error, but the notion of the local will definitely be very important."

Parc de la Distance, a new design for a public park by Austrian architecture firm Studio Precht.

Image: Studio Precht, VIA Reuters

Baseball and soccer have returned to South Korea and the measures taken there can provide a glimpse into what might be needed to resume other sports in the months ahead. These might include barely-filled stadiums, crowd noise pumped in through loud speakers, and athletes that trade handshakes for fist bumps.

Truly safe mass events will need something else: a contained virus. South Korea is one of the first countries to contain COVID-19 and other countries will need to follow suit or risk future outbreaks.

Local league baseball has restarted in South Korea, but live audiences arent permitted.

Image: REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

Has working from home left you exhausted? You're not alone, explained one expert for the Conversation this week. The self-control needed to manage the demands of working from home can deplete both your mental and physical energies. Finding ways to detach yourself from work can help you you get back on track.

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Written by

Linda Lacina, Digital Editor, World Economic Forum

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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What you need to know about the COVID-19 pandemic on 13 May - World Economic Forum