Tourism resumes as EU countries reopen borders
Need for vigilance comes into sharp focus as outbreak hits Beijing
BERLIN— European countries reopened borders Monday after a three-month coronavirus shutdown, although international visitors are still being kept away and there was uncertainty over whether many Europeans will quickly embrace travel outside their home countries.
Reopening continued in Mexico and Brazil despite cases continuing to climb in the two largest countries in Latin America, where authorities struggled to handle the pandemic’s effect on already-weak medical systems.
The need for constant vigilance came into sharp focus as China, where COVID-19 first emerged last year, rushed to contain an outbreak in Beijing.
The head of the World Health Organization said more than 100,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus have been reported globally each day in the last two weeks, and countries that have curbed transmissions “must stay alert to the possibility of resurgence.”
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted that it took over two months to reach 100,000 reported cases, now a daily norm. Each day, nearly three-quarters of the new cases come from 10 countries — mostly in South Asia and the Americas, he said.
Germany and France dropped border checks nearly two weeks after Italy opened its frontiers. Greece welcomed visitors Monday with passengers on flights from other European countries not having to undergo compulsory coronavirus tests. The European Union’s 27 countries and other European states aren’t expected to start reopening to visitors from outside the continent until at least the beginning of July and possibly later.
Spain allowed thousands of Germans to fly to its Balearic Islands without a 14-day quarantine in a pilot program designed to help authorities gauge what’s needed against possible virus flare-ups.
Martin Hofman was delighted to board a flight from Dusseldorf to the island of Mallorca because he said his vacation couldn’t be postponed.
“To stay in Germany was not an option for us,” Hofman said. “We are totally happy that we can get out.”
Slovenia lifted travel restrictions with Italy, and the mayors of two towns on opposite sides of the border jointly removed a traffic sign that barred movement from one to the other. The towns of Nova Gorica in Slovenia and Gorizia in Italy are closely linked culturally and economically.
Mexico City residents were free to drive without restrictions, and subway and bus stations that had been closed resumed service Monday as the city of nine million continued its gradual return. Most of the stations had stayed open all along.
Mexico City’s graduated reopening is based on hospital occupancy levels. As of Saturday, the capital and the surrounding state had 74 per cent of their hospital beds occupied.
Construction, auto manufacturing, mining, bicycle sales and beer production already had been allowed to resume. Parks were allowed to open at 30 per cent of their capacity.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador encouraged Mexicans to get out of the house and get the economy moving again.
“Health is the most important thing, but at the same time the economy, well-being, the return to coexistence, harmony and freedom,” López Obrador said as he began his second weeklong road trip, this time from the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz. “We can’t let fear overwhelm us.”
In Beijing, where an outbreak was traced to a market that supplies much of the city’s meat and vegetables, thousands lined up for tests. Authorities confirmed 79 cases over four days in what looks to be the largest outbreak since China largely stopped its spread at home more than two months ago.
Tests were administered to workers at the Xinfadi market, anyone who had visited it in the past two weeks, or anyone who had come in contact with either group. The market is Beijing’s largest wholesale food market, prompting inspections of fresh meat and seafood in the city and elsewhere in China.
Authorities also locked down the neighbourhood around a second market, where three cases were confirmed. In all, 90,000 people are affected in the two neighbourhoods in the city of 20 million.
China, where the pandemic began in December, had relaxed most of its controls after the ruling Communist Party declared victory over the virus in March.
“We must continue to take decisive measures to defend against outside cases and internal resurgences, and mobilize all units to take responsibility,” said Xu Hejian, the director of the Beijing government information office.
Beijing suspended Monday’s planned restart of some primary schools and reversed the relaxation of some social isolation measures.
Inspectors found 40 samples of the virus in the closed market, including on a chopping board for imported salmon. That prompted some supermarket chains to take salmon off their shelves over the weekend and inspect markets, stores and restaurants.
Beijing health officials said gene sequencing showed the virus strain causing the new outbreak was related to that in Europe, although it wasn’t clear if it was being spread by people or the transportation of food.
Experts were doubtful the virus was being spread through salmon or other food products.
“For my money, it is more likely to be a person who came into the area with lots of people and the virus has spread, as the virus does,” said Ian MacKay, who studies viruses at the University of Queensland in Australia, adding there was no evidence to suggest a link between outbreaks and food.
Japanese officials said they were closely watching China’s investigation, as budget sushi restaurants in Japan rely heavily on imported seafood, especially from China. They added, though, that they have not seen scientific evidence suggesting the virus could be transmitted through food.