7
UPDATING THE NATION
Alok Sharma, appointed
Secretary of State for Business,
Energy & Industrial Strategy in
February
April & May 2020 Printweek
CORONAVIRUS TIMELINE
31 Dec 2019 In China, Wuhan
Municipal Health Commission
reports a cluster of cases of
pneumonia
5 Jan 2020 World Health
Organisation (WHO) reports its first
Disease Outbreak News on the new
virus, which has been identified as
a novel coronavirus
12 Jan China publicly shares genetic
sequence of the virus
13 Jan First case officially reported
outside of China – in Thailand
14 Jan WHO warns of possibility of
wider outbreak
20 Jan First case in US
29 Jan First cases in UK – two Chinese
nationals staying at a hotel in York
30 Jan WHO reports 7,818 confirmed
cases worldwide
31 Jan President Trump bans foreign
nationals from entering US if they
had been in China in the previous
fortnight
2 Feb First death outside China
recorded – in the Philippines
9 Feb Confirmed deaths in China
recorded at 811, more than in the
previous SARS epidemic
11 Feb Virus is named Covid-19
29 Feb First case of a patient being
infected in the UK
3 March Sharp increase of Covid-19
cases in Spain
5 March First death from virus
confirmed in UK
9 March Italy takes drastic action,
putting all 60m residents on lockdown,
the first country to implement
a national quarantine
11 March WHO declares that Covid-19
can be characterised as a pandemic
23 March UK lockdown: Prime
Minister Boris Johnson announces
strict curbs on life in the UK
31 March More than a third of the
worldwide population is subject to
some form of lockdown
2 April Number of cases worldwide
passes 1m
15 April Number of cases worldwide
passes 2m
28 April Number of cases worldwide
passes 3m
30 April UK has 165,225 reported
cases, and 26,097 confirmed deaths
– the third highest worldwide. US
has highest death toll, with more
than 60,000 fatalities. It is also
reported that 1m people worldwide
have recovered from the virus
1 May John Hopkins University
reports 3,257,660 total cases worldwide
and 233,416 confirmed deaths
Smart print bosses are already
thinking about the potential new
business sentiments and opportunities
that will emerge post-
coronavirus crisis, with some
print work reportedly already
being re-shored because of the
pandemic.
Supply chains and customer
bases have been subject to intense
scrutiny. Just as the crisis has
given us all a fresh appreciation
about who the “key workers” in
society really are, it’s also given
business leaders an opportunity to
see where the value lies in their
own operations.
With so many client businesses
shuttered, and entire marketing
teams furloughed, it’s also provided
an opportunity to assess
which customers will be worth
targeting in future, as well. And by
the sounds of it, customers will
not be having things all their own
way.
“I’m deciding now who I want
to work with as some companies
are having credit insurance withdrawn,
especially in the private
equity world and restaurants,” our
CEO notes.
Ian Carrotte, owner of credit
specialist ICSM, says simply:
“Jettison any clients who waste
your time and either pay too little
or too late.”
This global pandemic has shone
a very bright light on our interconnected
world, exposing the
dirty corners and cracks in the old
way of doing things.
As the Confederation of Paper
Industries director general
Andrew Large notes: “Our own
corporate health is only going to
be as good as the corporate health
of the network in which we
operate. We are all players in the
network.”
Business as usual will never be
the same again.