The West Virginia Department of Health andHuman Resources (DHHR) reportsas of 10:00 a.m., on August 19, 2020, there have been 369,546 total confirmatory laboratory results receivedfor COVID-19, with 8,801 total cases and 166 deaths.
DHHRhas confirmed the deaths of a 72-year old female fromCabell County and a 69-year old female from Kanawha County. Each deathreported is a solemn reminder of the seriousness of this disease, said Bill J.Crouch, DHHR Cabinet Secretary. We send our sympathy to these families andurge all West Virginians to continue following the guidelines to protect eachother.
CASESPER COUNTY: Barbour (33), Berkeley (748), Boone(124), Braxton (10), Brooke (79), Cabell (478), Calhoun (7), Clay (18),Doddridge (6), Fayette (178), Gilmer (18), Grant (131), Greenbrier (95),Hampshire (90), Hancock (115), Hardy (64), Harrison (247), Jackson (172),Jefferson (309), Kanawha (1,122), Lewis (28), Lincoln (111), Logan (380),Marion (203), Marshall (131), Mason (77), McDowell (67), Mercer (245), Mineral(128), Mingo (204), Monongalia (1,003), Monroe (22), Morgan (33), Nicholas(40), Ohio (284), Pendleton (47), Pleasants (14), Pocahontas (42), Preston(131), Putnam (228), Raleigh (310), Randolph (218), Ritchie (3), Roane (20),Summers (19), Taylor (86), Tucker (11), Tyler (15), Upshur (40), Wayne (221),Webster (7), Wetzel (45), Wirt (7), Wood (290), Wyoming (47).
Pleasenote that delays may be experienced with the reporting of information from thelocal health department to DHHR. As case surveillance continues at the localhealth department level, it may reveal that those tested in a certain countymay not be a resident of that county, or even the state as an individual inquestion may have crossed the state border to be tested.Such is the case of Greenbrier,Jefferson, Mineral, and Ohio counties inthis report.
Thedashboard located at www.coronavirus.wv.gov has been updated to include theschool alert system, a 7-day trend and a cumulative summary among many otherfeatures.
New York City on Tuesday released more than 1.46 million coronavirus antibody test results, the largest number to date, providing more evidence of how the virus penetrated deeply into some lower-income communities while passing more lightly across affluent parts of the city.
In one ZIP code in Queens, more than 50 percent of people who had gotten tested were found to have antibodies, a strikingly high rate. But no ZIP code south of 96th Street in Manhattan had a positive rate of more than 20 percent.
Across the city, more than 27 percent of those tested had positive antibody results. The borough with the highest rate was the Bronx, at 33 percent. Manhattan had the lowest rate, at 19 percent.
The data is likely to renew discussion about whether some neighborhoods or communities in New York City may be nearing herd immunity the point at which enough people have immunity that the virus is no longer able to spread widely within a community.
Until now, public data for antibody rates in New York City has been limited. CityMD, which plays a key role in the citys testing program, had shared some data from its network of urgent care clinics.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomos office had released some details from a survey which involved testing some 28,419 people across the state that suggested that roughly 21.6 percent of New York City residents had antibodies.
But the antibody testing data released on Tuesday is on a far larger scale, encompassing more than 15 percent of New York City residents. It included all antibody test results reported to the New York City Department of Health.
This gives us a sense at a deeper level of the magnitude of the penetration of the infection into the population, said Wafaa El-Sadr, an epidemiology professor at Columbia University.
Heres what it means:
Much remains unknown about the degree of protection against Covid-19 that antibodies may offer, or how long that protection may last. But the neighborhoods with more residents who were infected at the height of New Yorks outbreak in March and April may be less likely to be among the hardest hit during a second wave.
On the other hand, neighborhoods in which few residents have been infected may find themselves more vulnerable in the event of a resurgence.
Some researchers have expressed hope that herd immunity for the new coronavirus may only require about half of the people in a given community to have immunity while others have suggested a higher threshold, like 70 percent.
Of course, neighborhoods are not sealed off from one another, and even under the most optimistic predictions, most neighborhoods and millions of New Yorkers remain vulnerable to infection in a second wave.
Still, the relatively high prevalence of antibodies may partly explain why New York has not seen a significant uptick in cases over the past several months, even as the city has begun to reopen and some New Yorkers have begun to relax their social distancing.
In interviews, epidemiologists have generally expressed surprise and relief at the relatively low rate of new infections in New York City, chalking it up to a variety of measures: widespread use of face coverings, adherence to social distancing recommendations and the continued ban on indoor dining and bars.
If antibody tests are accurately identifying those who have been infected and if these antibodies are protective, are some communities in N.Y.C. close to achieving herd immunity, like Corona in Queens, for example, Professor El-Sadr wrote in an email. That is an intriguing thought.
The results released on Tuesday showed that 51.6 percent of people who got tested in one ZIP code in Corona had tested positive for antibodies.
The New York City health commissioner, Dr. Dave Chokshi, warned against drawing too many conclusions from antibody rates since there are still many outstanding questions about immunity.
Remaining vigilant about precautions like hand washing, distancing, face coverings and staying home if ill is essential to keeping transmission low, he said.
The hardest hit ZIP code in the city 11368 was the one in Corona, a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood with many construction workers and restaurant employees. Many had to work throughout the pandemic, raising their risk of infection.
About 23 percent of residents in the ZIP code have gotten an antibody test.
That part of Queens has an especially high rate of household crowding, which may also partly explain the high positive antibody rate. Experts have said transmission within households is a leading driver of the diseases spread.
Updated August 17, 2020
The ZIP code with the second highest rate of positive antibody tests was in the Borough Park neighborhood in South Brooklyn. There, more than 46.8 percent of antibody tests were positive.
Borough Park is home to many Hasidic Jews, a particularly hard-hit demographic. Large households are common, and the tight-knit, communal way of life was likely also a factor. Many Hasidic Jews fell sick in early March, right after Purim a holiday of joyous celebration, full of parties and mingling.
The lowest rate 12.4 percent came from a tiny ZIP code in Queens, consisting of just a couple of blocks of waterfront in Long Island City. The next lowest rates were in Manhattan, where in several ZIP codes fewer than 13 percent of people tested had antibodies. The lowest Manhattan rates 12.6 percent occurred in one ZIP code on the Upper East Side and another on the Upper West Side.
In Brooklyn, the ZIP code with the lowest rate of positive antibody tests 13.2 percent includes much of Park Slope, a wealthy and predominantly white neighborhood.
Among various age groups, those 17 and under were the most likely to have antibodies, with 32.6 percent of their tests coming back positive.
But the data may not add much value to the debate about school reopenings, since children were also by far the least likely age group to be tested about 6,500 per 100,000 people tested, compared to almost 27,500 per 100,000 people tested in the 45-64 age group.
The age results also were not separated by neighborhoods.
People aged 45 to 64 were more likely to have a positive antibody rate (28 percent) than adults in other age cohorts.
A higher percentage of men (28 percent) tested positive for antibodies than women (25 percent).
In ZIP codes classified as having high poverty rates, more than 30 percent of those tested had antibodies. In those with lower poverty rates, about 18.5 percent of people tested had antibodies.
The data did not include a breakdown by race or ethnicity. Other data has shown that Black and Hispanic New Yorkers have significantly higher rates when adjusted for age of being hospitalized or dying of Covid-19 than white people.
The accuracy of antibody testing varies widely. Moreover, most antibody tests were done for people seeking them out, which means that those who got tested are a self-selecting group and not a random sample.
It also appears that New Yorkers in some neighborhoods with lower infection rates were more likely to seek antibody testing.
In some wealthy and largely white ZIP codes in Manhattan, some 30 percent of people may have gotten an antibody test. But in Corona, for instance, where the positive rate was highest, less than a quarter of people got tested.
UPMC, the largest healthcare provider in the Pittsburgh region, says it lost $150 million in patient revenue in the final two weeks of March before receiving one of the countrys largest COVID-19 aid packages.
Patient volumes dropped in response to directives from various elected officials to attempt to quell the spread of the disease, the healthcare giant reported in its most recent quarterly report on May 29.
To blunt the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare providers, the federal government awarded Pittsburghs largest employer more than $1.1 billion in grants and loans. UPMC was one of only 25 organizations nationwide to receive more than $1 billion in aid. The aid included $363 million in grant money from the Provider Relief Fund and nearly $800 million in loans that UPMC will have to pay back by the end of next year.
But some critics say that the money was awarded in accordance with a formula favoring providers that least needed the aid. They say the money shouldve been prioritizing facilities that would struggle to stay open without help and providers serving residents most likely to be impacted by the pandemic.
The federal government awarded the money to healthcare organizations across the country based on how much money each had generated from Medicare patients, in particular, and in part based on their revenue from all sources in 2018. The aid worked out to about $130,000 per hospital bed in the UPMC system and about 5% of their operating revenue last year.
This aid package UPMC received was one of the largest of any business or nonprofit, in any industry. Across the country, 25 healthcare providers received more direct grant funding, and about half of those were in New York and New Jersey, which were the hardest hit by COVID-19 early on, and some of which were eligible for additional funding. Most of the others were national providers with locations spanning between six and 22 states.
Only nine non-healthcare organizations received more grant funding than UPMC, including a handful of the countrys largest airlines, airports and universities. The funding for these loans and grants came from different programs in the CARES Act and the funding for the loans for healthcare providers came from a program that is normally used to provide advanced payment to disaster victims from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Neil Mahoney, a professor of economics at Stanford University who studies health care, said that healthcare funding hasnt received the same level of scrutiny as funding for unemployment, for example. This is money that goes to these large institutions, and the dollar value is huge so I do think its important that [were] paying attention to this, he said.
Initially, Congress required recipients of this healthcare aid to report how it spent this money quarterly, but the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has since said the recipients dont have to report how they spent the money until February. On Aug. 27, UPMC will release financial information about how the company was able to weather the downturn between April 1 and June 30. A spokesperson didnt answer a question about whether it will explain in detail how its spent the more than $1.1 billion in federal funding.
If UPMCs finances are like other local providers, next weeks financial statement could have some bad news. The Allegheny Health Network, the second largest provider in the region, has already reported losing $116 million the first six months of the year due to lost revenue from COVID-19.
UPMC did not make anyone available for an interview for this article. Susan Manko, the vice president of public relations for UPMC, responded by email to a list of 15 questions about UPMCs finances by referring to its quarterly report released in May. Manko responded to only one of those questions directly, an inquiry about whether UPMC had instituted any layoffs, cutbacks or adjusted executive pay.
UPMC did not and does not plan to institute any pay cuts, furloughs or staffing reductions related to COVID-19, Manko wrote. Flexible work arrangements and alternate assignments have been put in place where possible.
The federal government has allocated $175 billion in grants to help healthcare providers and has already spent more than $100 billion of it.
To get the initial money out quickly, the federal government allocated the initial $50 billion based on two factors: how much money providers had received from Medicare in 2018 and how much money overall it received from all sources. Since then it has also distributed some aid to areas hit hard by COVID-19, rural providers and providers that serve low income and children without insurance.
In the past couple of years, UPMC providers received nearly two-thirds of their revenue from the government-run healthcare programs, Medicare and Medicaid.
An analysis by the Kaiser Health Foundation showed that the initial formula used to distribute the aid meant hospitals with the highest rates of private insurance revenue, actually received more funding. At UPMC that means the largest share of grant money went to UPMC Presbyterian, UPMC Mercy and UPMC Pinnacle in central Pennsylvania.
Although the money was broadly intended to go toward COVID-19 efforts, its not clear how it was distributed. Allison Hydzik, a spokesperson for UPMC, said the hospital chain has 750 ICU beds and could potentially double that amount if needed. UPMC has conducted over 146,000 COVID-19 tests, including 7,300 positive tests, Hydzik wrote in an email. She said UPMC has served those patients who tested positive directly in person or through outpatient video visits, but she didnt have data on the total number of COVID-19 patients UPMC has served in its hospitals.
Mahoney, the economist at Stanford, said that large hospital systems like UPMC didnt really need the government funding to withstand the pandemic because they have so much money already. UPMC touted in a May press release that its $7 billion cash and investments provide for long-term sustainability.
These institutions have rainy day funds and built up assets for this very reason and now is the time to rely on those rainy day funds, he said.
But according to some federal officials at the time, organizations like UPMC were in danger because they were delaying so many non-essential procedures.
Healthcare providers are making massive financial sacrifices to care for the influx of coronavirus patients, said Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, when the loan funds were distributed in April. They shouldnt be penalized for doing the right thing. Amid a public health storm of unprecedented fury, these payments are helping providers and suppliers so critical to defeating this terrible virus stay afloat.
In addition to its own financial reserves, UPMC was able to draw on more than $2.3 billion in private financing to help its cash flow during the pandemic, according to its most recent financial statements.
The private lenders are not going to lend to somebody who is going to go under, Mahoney said. So the fact that [UMPC] can get a large amount of funding on the private market means they arent at any serious risk of closure.
Encompass Health Corporation, by contrast, which operates facilities in 37 states, returned the $237 million it received from the CARES Act because its CEO said it had enough private funding and sources of capital, and it was worried about the requirements that might come with the funds.
Mahoney thinks that the federal money should be focused on helping healthcare providers most at risk of going under. In its most recent disbursements, the government spent more than $11 billion on rural facilities, which is a step in the right direction, he said.
UPMC has another reason it may not be as severely impacted as other providers: It sells health insurance to nearly 4 million people, and health insurance providers have been posting record profits during the pandemic. Thats because many of the patients insurers thought they would have to pay claims for never showing up for the procedures. UPMC said it wouldnt release its data until next week.
Highmark Health, for example, reported more than $600 million in profits for the first half of 2020, so much money that it legally is required to send back more than $100 million of it to customers. The Allegheny Health Network received around $300 million in grants and loans through CARES Act and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid programs.
During the first three months of the year, UPMC reported that its insurance profits had actually gone down compared to last year because it was paying out more money in claims than usual. That report, however, only included two weeks of post-lockdown life.
UPMC has also received funding for a number of research trials and is developing a couple of potential vaccines that could prove lucrative if they work out. One of UPMCs vaccines in development has had some initial success producing antibodies, but it isnt one of the vaccines that the federal government has already paid billions of dollars in advance for supplies.
UPMC has been preparing for the possibility of losses. The final cumulative impact of COVID-19 is not known and will most likely be material to UPMC, UPMC wrote in its last quarterly statement.
Marshall Chin, a professor of healthcare ethics at the University of Chicago, said the initial Provider Relief Fund payments were lacking for another reason: It didnt require the fund to prioritize groups that are most impacted by the virus, including racial and ethnic minorities, people in poverty and the elderly in nursing homes. He wants to know whether UPMC and other healthcare organizations have prioritized those groups in the money they received.
Since then, he noted some money has been set aside for providers that target vulnerable residents. In the second round of funding, $15 billion was targeted to organizations that serve low-income residents and uninsured children.
Chin thinks any additional funding should address the underlying systemic issues driving COVID-19 inequities, to change the incentives for UPMC and others. He says providers need to more fully address the holistic needs of vulnerable patients, such as their housing and nutritional needs. Even nonprofits like UPMC are not doing this enough now, he said.
They have to maintain financial solvency and are playing by the rules that are set up and the current financing mechanisms and what they incentivize, he said. And as a whole, they largely incentivize medical care that doesnt address the social factors that impact patients.
Oliver Morrison is PublicSources environment and health reporter. He can be reached at oliver@publicsource.org or on Twitter @ORMorrison.
This story was fact-checked by Matt Maielli.
Chieko Hara/University Relations
Two students in the Living Room of the Arkansas Union. Students, staff and faculty must wear masks whenever they are unable to maintain 6 feet of physical distance from one another.
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. On-campus reporting, notification, isolation and quarantine protocols have been established for when a positive COVID-19 case is reported at the University of Arkansas.
To ensure the safety of our campus community, anyone who has received a positive test for COVID-19 off campus will need toisolateand fill out the onlineself-reporting COVID-19 formto initiate the contact tracing and notification process. Anyone who tests positive and had the test conducted on-campus will not need to self-report as the case information will already be provided directly to Emergency Management by the university.
If someone has been exposed to a person with a positive COVID-19 test, they will need to quarantine in accordance withguidance from the Centers for Disease Control.
Procedures have been developedto notify the appropriate people on campus when a person tests positive. Facilities are available for the potential need for isolation and quarantine of on-campus students. Online and remote alternatives for all classes are available to help students who have to quarantine or self-isolate to stay on track academically.
Full detailson testing, reporting and tracingcan be found on the university'sCOVID-19 Response webite. Full safety guidelines can also be found in theSafety Guidelines and Requirementssection of the website.
While mandatory testing is not recommended by the CDC or the Arkansas Department of Health,the Pat Walker Health Clinic is providing on-campus COVID-19 testing as appropriate.
Any students, faculty or staff who are exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 or who have been identified as a contact of an individual diagnosed with COVID-19 can receive a nasal swab PCR test through the Pat Walker Health Center.
Asymptomatic testing can be conducted as supplies, test kits and capacity allow.
Appointments are required to be tested and can be made through the Pat Walker Health Center at 479-575-4451, option 1.
Anyone experiencing symptoms is instructed to isolate while awaiting results and make a list of close contacts encountered beginning 48-hours before symptoms started.
If you've been identified as having close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, you mustquarantinefor 14 days from the last contact date.
Costs associated with COVID-19 screening and testing will vary based on individual insurance plans. If you do not have insurance, there is no charge.
Other Northwest Arkansastesting sites, COVID facts and resources can be found on theCOVID website.
Contact tracing will be conducted by University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in partnership with the Arkansas Department of Higher Education and the Arkansas Department of Health.
A helpfulflow chartis available that details the U of A's reporting, isolation, notification and other safety procedures when a positive case is reported to U of A Emergency Management.
About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among fewer than 3 percent of colleges and universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.
As the pandemic spring has turned into the pandemic summerand with no sign of abating once fall arrivesAmericans are beginning to grapple with how the disease will change daily life forever. Across the country, empty streets and empty office towers dont just mean a change in how we workentire communities have relocated to new places.
Reopen the economy has entered the pantheon of American political catchphrases. And while white collar workers may reap the benefits of a post-COVID worldone in which employers recognize thatwith a powerful enough internet connection, anyone can work from homeblue collar workers wont see those benefits.
But its not just in the workplace. Medicine and education are also being rethought in real time. Come September, school will look radically different than it did a year agobut who are the students that stand to gain from at-home learning? How can we ensure that all studentsregardless of race and family wealthcan thrive while learning digitally? And how do we make sure that doctors appointments conducted over the internet are accessible to everyone who needs care?
One day the pandemic will end. But before that happens, we need to make sure that the world it leaves in its wake is a just and equitable one. Finding the answers to these questions is the first step.
In this episode of the TechTank podcast, CTI Senior Fellow Darrell West hosts a conversation with Annelies Goger, a David M. Rubenstein Fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program, and Makada Henry-Nickie, a fellow in Governance Studies. The three discuss how COVID-19 is impacting employment, healthcare, and education during pandemic-related shutdowns and how its effects may be felt in these areas long after the virus subsides.
Listen to the episode and subscribe to the TechTank podcast via Apple,Spotify, orAcast.
TechTank is a bi-weekly podcast from Lawfare and The Brookings Institution exploring the most consequential technology issues of our time. From racial bias in algorithms to the future of work, TechTank takes big ideas and makes them accessible. In a series of roundtable discussions and interviews with technology experts and policymakers, moderators Dr. Nicol Turner Lee and Darrell West unpack tech policy debates and highlight new data, ideas, and policy solutions. Future episodes will explore the role of technology in election interference, disinformation campaigns, school reopening and broadband access, the digital divide and more. Sign up to receive the TechTank newsletter for more research and analysis from the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings.
The West Virginia Department of Health andHuman Resources (DHHR) reportsas of 10:00 a.m., on August 20, 2020, there have been 377,537 total confirmatory laboratory results receivedfor COVID-19, with 8,982 total cases and 166 deaths.
CASESPER COUNTY: Barbour (33), Berkeley (753), Boone(125), Braxton (10), Brooke (82), Cabell (485), Calhoun (7), Clay (19),Doddridge (6), Fayette (183), Gilmer (18), Grant (131), Greenbrier (95),Hampshire (91), Hancock (115), Hardy (63), Harrison (250), Jackson (178),Jefferson (312), Kanawha (1,161), Lewis (30), Lincoln (116), Logan (418),Marion (205), Marshall (133), Mason (82), McDowell (67), Mercer (256), Mineral(128), Mingo (210), Monongalia (1,014), Monroe (27), Morgan (34), Nicholas(40), Ohio (283), Pendleton (47), Pleasants (14), Pocahontas (42), Preston(132), Putnam (236), Raleigh (314), Randolph (218), Ritchie (3), Roane (20),Summers (19), Taylor (87), Tucker (11), Tyler (15), Upshur (40), Wayne (223),Webster (7), Wetzel (45), Wirt (7), Wood (290), Wyoming (52).
Pleasenote that delays may be experienced with the reporting of information from thelocal health department to DHHR. As case surveillance continues at the localhealth department level, it may reveal that those tested in a certain countymay not be a resident of that county, or even the state as an individual inquestion may have crossed the state border to be tested.
Thedashboard located at www.coronavirus.wv.gov has been updated to include theschool alert system, a 7-day trend and a cumulative summary among many otherfeatures.
Notably, several of the new studies are finding these powerful responses in people who did not develop severe cases of Covid-19, Dr. Iyer added. Some researchers have worried that infections that take a smaller toll on the body are less memorable to the immune systems studious cells, which may prefer to invest their resources in more serious assaults. In some cases, the body could even jettison the viruses so quickly that it fails to catalog them. This paper suggests this is not true, Dr. Iyer said. You can still get durable immunity without suffering the consequences of infection.
Updated August 17, 2020
What has been observed in people who fought off mild cases of Covid-19 might not hold true for hospitalized patients, whose bodies struggle to marshal a balanced immune response to the virus, or those who were infected but had no symptoms at all. Research groups around the world are continuing to study the entire range of responses. But the vast majority of the cases are these mild infections, said Jason Netland, an immunologist at the University of Washington and an author on the paper under review at Nature. If those people are going to be protected, thats still good.
This new spate of studies could also further assuage fears about how and when the pandemic will end. On Friday, updated guidance released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was misinterpreted by several news reports that suggested immunity against the coronavirus might last only a few months. Experts quickly responded, noting the dangers of propagating such statements and pointing to the wealth of evidence that people who previously had the virus are probably at least partly protected from reinfection for at least three months, if not much longer.
Considered with other recent reports, the new data reinforce the idea that, Yes, you do develop immunity to this virus, and good immunity to this virus, said Dr. Eun-Hyung Lee, an immunologist at Emory University who was not involved in the studies. Thats the message we want to get out there.
Some illnesses, like the flu, can plague populations repeatedly. But that is at least partly attributable to the high mutation rates of influenza viruses, which can quickly make the pathogens unrecognizable to the immune system. Coronaviruses, in contrast, tend to change their appearance less readily from year to year.
Still, much remains unknown. Although these studies hint at the potential for protectiveness, they do not demonstrate protection in action, said Cheong-Hee Chang, an immunologist at the University of Michigan who was not involved in the new studies. Its hard to predict whats going to happen, Dr. Chang said. Humans are so heterogeneous. There are so many factors coming into play.
Research in animals could help fill a few gaps. Small studies have shown that one bout of the coronavirus seems to protect rhesus macaques from contracting it again.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, financial services are rapidly evolving and transforming their digital business models, with new circumstances. This has, at times, required some leapfrogging through banks' digital transformation agendas. This posed challenges as well as opportunities in the Swiss financial services sector, where banks, in close alignment with the Swiss government, had to: execute the provision of a large amount of credit facilities; adapt offerings in support of clients needs and changed behaviour; and introduce fast, flexible and effective measures to keep operations and services stable.
During the crisis, banks' clients changed their behaviour overnight and often by brute force, reflecting adaptions to restrictions and health and safety requirements. Rapid increases occurred in digital opening of new relationships (up over 70%), registration and usage of mobile pay applications (up over 80%), and usage of contactless payments (up over 30%). These increases corresponded with the reduction of physical client meetings.
At the same time, the setup of organizations themselves had to be digitally amended to reflect remote working, communication and client service. Rapidly increasing the amount of remote working arrangements with the majority of employees in Switzerland working from home, while also keeping the level of client service consistent, represented a significant operational challenge for the financial services industry.
This experience helped organizations identify the transformational potential of digital channels and digital operational setups, as well as the importance of new value creation from data and analytics. The following are concrete examples from a Swiss perspective of how digital solutions, data and analytics can be used to create value in financial service organizations:
Protect clients by identifying conspicuous or fraudulent transactions
Organizations can apply successful fraud prevention for credit card transactions using artificial intelligence (AI) with real-time data analytics as an early warning system. A digital solution analyzing a variety of variables evaluates the fraud probability of credit card transactions and, upon suspicion, initiates an immediate request for client feedback to clarify legitimacy. Adaptive analytics through machine learning can be applied by continuously reintroducing client feedback into the data model. This significantly reduces losses through fraud cases. The sound application and scale of the preventative AI was particularly important during COVID-19, with relative fraud prevention activity levels up by more than 40% compared to pre COVID-19 levels.
Meet regulatory and legal requirements
Data analysis helps organizations meet legal and regulatory requirements more efficiently. Machine learning is used to detect deviations in client and transaction profiles. Clients with large and complex needs bear an increased level of operational risk such as Anti-Money Laundering (AML)/Know Your Customer (KYC) checks, which can be managed with holistic client and transaction review tools. These tools apply smart analytics to identify issues and enhanced interactivity/visualization to translate data into insights. This allows organizations to identify risks with increased speed and quality, and helps make complex data patterns available to larger audiences through enhanced visualization.
Boost operational efficiency
In combination with automation, data analysis can be used to improve the efficiency of providing financial services to clients. A large number of documentation packages for client meetings are prepared every year across the Swiss financial centre. Through the combination of a distinct data element with robotics process automation, it is possible to generate client documentation from management tools and archives at a high frequency. Due to its scalability, high volumes can be managed more efficiently.
Under fierce conditions, the full power of robotics has been revealed at its best. In order to support Swiss small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) tackling the challenges posed by the pandemic, Swiss banks, in collaboration with the Swiss government, established a lending programme to affected companies in Switzerland quickly. In order to provide the SMEs with much-needed liquidity without undue delay. At UBS, for example, we delivered six credit robots, which supported our task force in processing credit facility requests. With this support, over 24,000 applications were processed in 24-hour operating mode, at times representing up to 100 virtual workers.
Another measure to improve operational efficiency is data screening and usage from physical incoming mail. Incoming mail is opened, scanned and treated with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) allowing for intelligent classification along embedded meta-data and delivery to a digital mailbox. Users responded well to the introduction of this service, with a high acceptance rate and a very high digitization rate of documents (up to 90%). This made physical distancing requirements even more effective, by digitizing physical mail and thus enabling mail processing under remote working conditions for over 13,000 Swiss UBS employees working from home. So far, around 350,000 documents have been processed, the equivalent of 1 million pages or 5 tonnes of paper since September 2019.
Serve clients better through data and analytics
Swiss banks invested heavily over the past years to add value for clients by applying advanced analysis to their portfolios and offering related tailored products, investments and advisory services. They can improve products further by evaluating client feedback to improve the overall experience with better quality interactions. Digital solutions and data and analytics can also be used to increase the relevance and efficiency of client communications and tailor financial services better to clients' needs.
The first global pandemic in more than 100 years, COVID-19 has spread throughout the world at an unprecedented speed. At the time of writing, 4.5 million cases have been confirmed and more than 300,000 people have died due to the virus.
As countries seek to recover, some of the more long-term economic, business, environmental, societal and technological challenges and opportunities are just beginning to become visible.
To help all stakeholders communities, governments, businesses and individuals understand the emerging risks and follow-on effects generated by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Marsh and McLennan and Zurich Insurance Group, has launched its COVID-19 Risks Outlook: A Preliminary Mapping and its Implications - a companion for decision-makers, building on the Forums annual Global Risks Report.
The report reveals that the economic impact of COVID-19 is dominating companies risks perceptions.
Companies are invited to join the Forums work to help manage the identified emerging risks of COVID-19 across industries to shape a better future. Read the full COVID-19 Risks Outlook: A Preliminary Mapping and its Implications report here, and our impact story with further information.
Follow sound data principles
The rising importance and application of data and analytics in financial services means ethical principles for the use of data beyond existing laws, rules and regulations are pivotal. In 2019, leading financial services firms, including UBS, endorsed the principles for use of data developed by the World Economic Forum. The launch of the Swiss Digital Initiative (SDI) to safeguard ethical standards in the digital age was celebrated with broad support by Swiss financial firms. For global and diverse institutions it is essential to demonstrate the importance of sound data governance and ethical principles by spearheading the comprehensive integration into their DNA. At the same time, we encourage other firms to serve as ambassadors for these principles within the financial services industry and beyond.
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Instruction
