Bankers from three Swiss wealth managers in Asia, which has the highest numbers of billionaires globally, said they asked some clients in the last couple of weeks to raise collateral against their loans amid a panic selling in securities.

Companies involved in the transport of goods say the impact is being felt hardest in air freight as more airlines shut down services, adding to difficulties with the transport of key goods such as medicines and perishable foods.

But since the bonds were launched in 2014, backed by about $190 million in promised financing from donor countries, investors have reaped more profits than countries battling epidemics. And even in the current pandemic, any payout to stricken countries would barely make a dent into what the outbreak has cost them.

Almost all insurance contracts covering companies, such as business interruption, supply-chain breakdown, cancellation of events or failure to deliver, exclude epidemics, according to FFA.

The French finance ministry said on Monday it was waiting for innovative proposals from insurers to design an insurance product that would improve cover of major health risks in the future.

“Today I have a message for young people: you are not invincible. This virus could put you in hospital for weeks — or even kill you,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

“Even if you don’t get sick, the choices you make about where you go could be the difference between life and death for someone else.”

Noting that aviation will be hit the hardest, the report said the global airline industry has already called for up to 200 billion euros in emergency support and Boeing alone has called for 60 billion euros in assistance for aerospace manufacturers.

Indian equity markets crashed over 7 per cent on Monday as the governments the world over struggle to contain the fast spreading novel coronavirus (COVID-19). In India, various state governments announced lockdown in nearly 80 districts across the country as the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases inched towards 400. 

“The vaccines will come, but we need to get out and do what we need to do now.”

Trade policies haven’t helped. Tariffs on medical supplies made them more expensive, and they were only lifted March 5, even though health care associations asked the administration last year to exempt items like masks, gloves and gowns. And now countries including South Korea, India and Taiwan are blocking exports of medical supplies to save them for their own citizens, leaving the U.S. with fewer options.

South Asia appears to have been less hard hit than elsewhere in the world but the rate of new infections in Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka is accelerating with the total across South Asia passing 800. Seven people have died.

Officials worry that these countries could prove especially in danger due to poor health facilities and infrastructure in much of the region. The virus has already infected more than 245,000 people worldwide and killed more than 10,000.