The digital economy has finally arrived. During the mid-1990s, technology enthusiasts predicted that the rapid spread of the internet and super-computing would generate new efficiencies, innovations and economies of scale. But the promised revolution in e-business and e-commerce stalled when the dot-com bubble burst. Since then, however, the world's digital footprint has increased exponentially. Today, global IP traffic is almost 150,000 GB per second compared to 100 GB per day three decades ago. Ubiquitous data and connectivity – around 60 zettabytes are anticipated in 2020 and almost three times as much by 2025 – is powering the new economy. The spread of cloud computing, artificial intelligence and billions of digitally connected devices are taking things to an entirely new level. These trends have only accelerated since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Financial markets can tell us a lot about the economic recovery ahead, based on their direction of travel and how confident investors feel about the future. This is important as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. There is much debate about whether the economic recovery will be a V-shape, indicating a short-lived economic downturn with a quick return to previous levels of output. Or if the recovery will take longer, following a U-shape. Or it could be more like an L-shape, with no near-term recovery and ultimately taking many years or even decades..

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged clinicians, public health authorities, companies and governments to quickly develop new capabilities for supporting recovery, maintaining health security, and building resilience. Digital tools and strategies have become crucial in this effort.
This document is an update of the Early Compendium of Technology Responses to COVID-19 published in April 2020. It more than triples the number of solutions, providing better visibility into the diverse uses of technology for the COVID-19 response.

This daily round-up brings you a selection of the latest news updates on the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, as well as tips and tools to help you stay informed and protected. Top stories: South Korea flu vaccine troubles; grim milestones for Mexico and the US; restrictions are relaxed in Bogota; Disneyland Hong Kong reopens.

Reducing inequality and improving social mobility, identifying new forms of growth, and focusing on new measures of economic performance are among the biggest challenges facing the global economy as countries emerge from lockdown. Current unemployment figures are likely a better barometer of economic health than financial market valuations, and the deglobalization of supply chains may force emerging markets to reconsider growth models. These are some of the findings of the World Economic Forum’s Chief Economists Outlook, published today.

New analysis from the World Economic Forum shows that some of Latin America’s and the Caribbean’s tourism strengths are less important than before to a competitive tourism economy during COVID-19. The onset and spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the factors that make a country’s travel and tourism sector competitive. Certain factors, such as healthcare capacity and digital travel offerings, are increasing in importance during the pandemic. Other factors, like international openness – a primary strength of Latin America – are now less important.

New technologies can help create workplaces that are fair, equitable and diverse, according to the World Economic Forum’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion 4.0 Toolkit, released today.

As businesses emerge from the COVID-19 crisis, they have a unique opportunity to ensure that equity, inclusion and justice define the "new normal" and tackle exclusion, bias and discrimination related to race, gender, ability, sexual orientation and all other forms of human diversity.

To achieve a better outcome, the world must act jointly and swiftly to revamp all aspects of our societies and economies, from education to social contracts and working conditions. Every country, from the United States to China, must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed. In short, we need a “Great Reset” of capitalism.

The COVID-19 crisis has affected societies and economies around the globe and will permanently reshape our world as it continues to unfold. While the fallout from the crisis is both amplifying familiar risks and creating new ones, change at this scale also creates new openings for managing systemic challenges, and ways to build back better.

It has taken a global pandemic to raise the world’s awareness of the importance of handwashing and access to clean water – basic services that more than 2 billion people in the world still lack.

Humble handwashing has gone mainstream because it is the first defence against COVID-19. It literally saves lives. But, the simple act of handwashing is unachievable for far too many people. For the more than one-in-three on the planet who lack basic water access, handwashing is not just a lifesaver, it is a privilege.

"We’ve pulled back on some of the digital tracing because of our concerns with privacy…. But that’s because the disease is receding. My guess is that if the disease continues to go forward, we’ll try as fast as we can to get voluntary compliance with these apps - but if we hit a second wave, my guess is that there will be public outcry calling for the use of broader digital tracing", said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during a virtual meeting of the Forum's COVID-19 Action Platform on 27 May

The global COVID-19 quarantine has meant less air pollution in cities and clearer skies. Animals are strolling through public spaces, and sound pollution has diminished, allowing us to hear the birds sing.

But these relatively small and temporary changes should not be mistaken for the COVID-19 pandemic actually helping to fix climate change. Quite the contrary: the pandemic that made the world stop offers a glimpse of the deep changes in lifestyles and economic structures that we need to implement if we are to effectively mitigate the worst of climate change.

While a global pandemic has been a looming risk for decades, COVID-19 has come as a shock to society, health systems, economies and governments worldwide. In the midst of extraordinary challenges and uncertainty, and countless personal tragedies, leaders are under pressure to make decisions on managing the immediate impact of the pandemic and its consequences, decisions that will shape the state of the world for years to come. What might be the silver linings in the crisis and how might leaders use this moment to build a more prosperous, equitable and sustainable world?

"Unless we open up our economy, we have millions facing starvation." That was the straightforward assessment of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on the impact of COVID-19 during a virtual meeting of the Forum's COVID Action Platform on 20 May.

Khan explained: "In Pakistan, we have 25 million workers who are either [on] daily wages or get paid weekly or are self-employed. When we locked down, like the whole of the world, to stop the spread of the virus, all these people became unemployed. When we're talking about 25 million workers, you're talking about 25 million families and it has affected almost 120-150 million people...unless the men and women work, they cannot feed their families."

Talking to children about Coronavirus is not always easy. But Dr Ranj Singh has built a career on communicating with the very young about illness, medecine and hospitals in his BBC TV show Get Well Soon. So for this episode of World Vs Virus. we asked him to join a Zoom call to take questions from three children, Asal, 6, Ella, 9, and Luke 11.

With 1.5 billion children globally out of school due to COVID-19, many parents with access to technology and internet are increasingly turning to online education technology, smart toys, and video games to keep their kids learning at home. Kids are using Zoom for classes and video calls, YouTube for education and leisure, online EdTech to learn, and videogames for entertainment. Many parents are turning to online education technology, but is it safe?

While high-tech tools have enhanced modern contact tracing efforts, they are still no substitute for public health basics, said Michael J. Ryan, Chief Executive Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Health Emergencies Programme, according to this article published by the World Economic Forum.

“IT tools do not replace the basic public health workforce that is going to be needed to trace, test, isolate and quarantine," Ryan said at a briefing Monday in Geneva.