After one of the hardest hit weeks we’ve seen for businesses in the last few decades, it has been a week challenging grit, resilience, determination and surrender to events. 

We have been listening to your stories flood in with heartbreaking compassion of some of the devastation hitting businesses and team members, particularly in the travel, hospitality and event industries. Our hearts go out to all of you who have been impacted with significant job losses and downturn in business activity.

In the midst of chaos, redundancies and widespread disruption, it has been comforting to hear some of the positive stories and support come from staff, communities, customers and clients. 

We’ve heard heartwarming stories of teams rallying together to support each other, staff sharing reassuring texts to their bosses who have been struggling to sleep at night – desperately trying to keep staff on, and teams coming together to brainstorm creative ideas on how to drum up new business – as well as some examples of team members going above and beyond to look after our communities and ensure everyone is feeling safe, looked after and protected. 

Here are some good news stories and reassurance coming out of the last week of events. 

• To date no “community spread” in SA (as at 19/3 of the 42 confirmed cases in SA – 6 contributed to close contact with someone contaminated and all others have originated from travel
• The number of new cases are falling where the outbreak began. Both China and the Republic of Korea have significantly declining epidemics and Wuhan province (site of the very first cases) has just reported a day of no new local cases for the first time since the outbreak began
• South Korea recoveries are starting to outnumber new infections
• China is getting its feet back on the ground, opening parks and athletics, and loosening travel restrictions
• Most people with COVID-19 recover – estimates now suggest that 99% of people infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 will recover
• Children seem to be infected less often and have milder disease
• Due to high levels of self-quarantine, Codogno, one of the two coronavirus clusters in Italy, has reported significantly fewer infections per day
• Australian researchers are in the midst of testing two drugs as cures to the virus
• Scientists in Canada have made massive breakthroughs in an effort to develop a vaccine
• China is testing five different vaccine options, claiming it could have a vaccine ready by next month
• Vaccination trials in the U.S. are already underway
• Scientists in Israel have also noted the potential to announce development of a coronavirus vaccine within weeks
• A Japanese flu drug has proven effective in treating the novel coronavirus
• A team of infectious disease experts calculated the fatality rate of Wuhan’s coronavirus outbreak is about 1.4%, drastically lower than earlier estimates
• Air pollution has plummeted in cities with high numbers of quarantined individuals, Venice’s waters are running clear and dolphins and other wildlife are returning to densely populated areas
• Communities are coming together to help their neighbours and communities
• A 103-year-old Chinese grandmother has made a full recovery from COVID-19
• Cooperation is spreading on an unprecedented global scale. 

As you enter the weekend, we encourage you all to remember this too shall pass, and we’re all in this together. We will look back one day and discover valuable growth experiences in the chaos, and opportunities to optimise and advance businesses into the future.

Lastly – follow good hygiene practices and social distancing guidelines. Support one another. Lend an ear or any support to any businesses that may be doing it tough and above all – take good care of yourselves.