The economic impact of COVID-19 is ramping up as unemployment in Australia is likely to hit double digits this week. The global impact of the virus is continuing at an alarming rate with infection totals approximately doubling every eight days, with almost 2 million confirmed cases worldwide at the time of writing. Most World Governments are accepting the sobering fact that we are in for a marathon to combat this virus. The interesting exception is Spain, which is preemptively loosening their quarantine and social distancing measures despite having the second highest number of cases in the world, one of the worst mortality rates, and by far the highest percentage of cases per capita (3,611.41 cases/1M people). Here in Australia, our numbers remain low and the participation in social distancing by citizens nationwide has been commendable.
Canadian Compounding
Rates of infection in Canada continue to increase while mortality rates are what would be expected from a developed nation with a socialised healthcare system. Social distancing and quarantine measures are expected to continue for the foreseeable future with PM Justin Trudeau warning Canadians that any ‘normalcy’ is a long way away. Our compounding facility has not been affected given our status as an essential service and we do not foresee any interruptions.
International Logistics
UPS is business as usual again this week. Our latest shipment is on schedule to arrive today (Wednesday 15th). There have been no mentions of speculation on interruptions in international imports, and customs and quarantine continues to process and clear our shipments without delay.
Australian Operations
We are continuing our proactive social distancing and ensuring there is only ever one person in the office at a given time. From our experience over the past few weeks, we do not foresee any reason why our client support would change in the weeks and months ahead.
Domestic Logistics
Due to our social distancing measures within the office, our delivery time has slowed slightly from 2-3 weeks to 3 weeks from order to delivery. StarTrack continues to ship products nationwide every day.
We are here to help and if you have questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact us. My thoughts go out to you and your loved ones, and hope that globally we will all work together to get this pandemic under control. I will update you again Tuesday next week.
*If you have some patients on products from other suppliers and are planning to transition them as a result of European supply challenges, please let us know in advance so we can help manage this process.