Syracuse, N.Y. (NCC NEWS) – The novel Coronavirus has now affected more almost 100,000 people worldwide, but the CDC does not believe this number will go down any time soon.
Although the virus doesn’t have a high death rate, thousands have been hospitalized, and China’s manufacturing industry has been largely shutdown due to large quarantines in the country. This nationwide response has lead to worldwide struggles for companies who rely on China in their supply chain.
Companies like ICM Controls, in North Syracuse, who manufactures thermostats, is seeing some affect because they rely on China to obtain their raw materials for production.
CEO of ICM Andy Kadah said “prices of shipping have increased by more than 10 times. This is affecting are supply chain heavily.”
The company, which is vertically integrated, meaning that they do mostly all of the production from start to finish themselves other than obtaining raw materials , is going to domestic suppliers for materials. This may actually have a positive impact for domestic companies who now have a wide range of new customers.
This all comes after a historic dip in the stock market. The Dow Jones dropped 1,300 points yesterday, and the Federal Reserve dropped interest rates by a half a percentage point, NPR reports.
This decline has worried many, but the Senate funded $8 billion to virus research. Researchers are hoping that this research pays off, and a cure to the disease is found soon.
