It's not one or the other. Poverty and extreme poverty in Latin America are being worsened by the lockdown. We wil have more deaths due to malnutrition, lack of access to healthcare, unsanitary conditions etc than the coronavirus itself. You have no idea how bad the economy is here right now. We were already in recession and going through a terrible crisis and this lockdown has made it much worse. People are losing their jobs left and right. Kids are not being fed. People do not have access to essentials. The only people that this lockdown will help is rich people who can afford to safely stay home. My family's business is going under as so many others. Who's going to pay our bills? Who's going to pay our employees' salaries? not the government, that's for sure. At work they already told us our next payment will come in mid May probably. Don't make assumptions just because in Europe some countries can afford the lockdown. Here we can't. We have almost 40% of people living in poverty. It will likely increase in the coming weeks. People are desperate because they cannot afford food.

It is the same in the Philippines, my home country. Poverty incidence here is extremely high. We are on lockdown for 1 month which started March 15 and will end on April 14. During the first few days, people are not following the quarantine measures because they need to work, in order to make money. Most people are on a no-work no-pay policy. While they understand the severity of the virus, they also have to think of their stomach, and those of their families. They believe that hunger will kill them first before the virus.

The local governments were caught unaware by the lockdown, but slowly, they have stepped up. And the call by the government upon private companies and individuals are slowly bearing fruit. The government, NGOs and private entities, working together, have been distibuting to the poor, food packs and basic essential items such as soaps and alcohol. Yes, it was chaos in the first few days, but we are getting there. The Philippines cannot afford a long drawn out battle with covid-19 precisely becasue we are a poor country. We lack test kits, face masks and other PPEs. Our doctors are dying due to Covid19 infection.There are 380 confirmed cases, 25 deaths or a 6.6% mortality. 12% of mortality are doctors, but there are only 0.12% doctors in our population. The 30-day lockdown is just the first step. If you are a poor country, you can't afford COVID, you must follow the lockdown. STAY HOME.

TOGETHER WE WILL BEAT COVID-19!

 

Here in the states banks need to get on board and help more.  They could freeze mortgages and add the time to the end of the mortgage.  This would allow people who are being put out of work due to this to use what little money they have for medicine, food, and essentials until they are back to work.

Sorry to hear that, but I still believe Solidarity is the answer

It's not one or the other. Poverty and extreme poverty in Latin America are being worsened by the lockdown. We wil have more deaths due to malnutrition, lack of access to healthcare, unsanitary conditions etc than the coronavirus itself. You have no idea how bad the economy is here right now. We were already in recession and going through a terrible crisis and this lockdown has made it much worse. People are losing their jobs left and right. Kids are not being fed. People do not have access to essentials. The only people that this lockdown will help is rich people who can afford to safely stay home. My family's business is going under as so many others. Who's going to pay our bills? Who's going to pay our employees' salaries? not the government, that's for sure. At work they already told us our next payment will come in mid May probably. Don't make assumptions just because in Europe some countries can afford the lockdown. Here we can't. We have almost 40% of people living in poverty. It will likely increase in the coming weeks. People are desperate because they cannot afford food.