Europe emerges from lockdown as toll rises
Politicians grapple with 2nd-wave fears
ROME: Millions of Europeans emerged from lockdown yesterday, with hardesthit Italy leading the way out of its twomonth coronavirus confinement.
Blue skies greeted Romans as they stepped into a world forever changed by the pandemic that has now infected 3.5 million people.
Around 248,000 people have died since the coronavirus emerged in China late last year and swept across the globe, given wings by the vast network of air routes that in normal times keep the modern world ticking.
Lockdowns imposed on half of the planet in a bid to stem the spread have derailed economies and left tens of millions of people out of work.
Politicians are now grappling with how to get the wheels turning again without sparking a second wave of infections.
Italy — second only to the United States in its Covid-19 death toll — was gingerly emerging into the spring sunshine yesterday, with construction sites and factories getting back to work.
Restaurants will reopen for takeaway service, but bars and ice cream parlours will remain shut. The use of public transport will be discouraged and everyone will have to wear masks in indoor public spaces.
“We are feeling a mix of joy and fear,” 40-year-old Stefano Milano said in Rome.
“There will be great happiness in being able to go running again carefree, in my son being allowed to have his little cousin over to blow out his birthday candles, to see our parents,” the father-of-three said.
Italy’s economy — the eurozone’s third-largest — is expected to shrink more than in any year since the global depression of the 1930s.
In the United States, the previously booming economy was supposed to be the centrepiece of Donald Trump’s November re-election bid.
But weeks of lockdown have left 30 million Americans out of work — and the president’s poll numbers sagging.
The United States has the most coronavirus deaths in the world at more 67,600, a number that rose 1,450 over the 24 hours to Sunday evening.
Some Republican-leaning states have seen demonstrations — sometimes armed — against movement restrictions, with participants decrying government overreach.
Meanwhile, many parts of Asia also began to inch back towards normal life, with schools in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi reopening yesterday after two weeks without new infections being reported anywhere in the country.
But regional heavyweight Japan was set to extend its state of emergency to the end of the month.
Russia is also rapidly becoming Europe’s blackspot, with officials in Moscow urging residents to stay home in an effort to tamp down the daily tally of new cases.
“The threat is apparently on the rise,” Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin told citizens.
In parts of the continent further along the infection curve, governments were starting to get to grips with the new normal.
Most are advocating continued social distancing and masks in public, as well as more testing to try to track infections.
Face masks were also made mandatory on public transport starting yesterday in Spain, where people were allowed to go outdoors to exercise and walk freely on Saturday after a 48-day lockdown.
Germany was also set to continue easing measures yesterday, while Slovenia, Poland and Hungary were readying to allow public spaces and businesses to partially reopen.
In another sign of life returning to normal, Germany’s minister for the interior and sport said on Sunday that he supports a resumption of the country’s football season this month — as long as all teams respect the mandatory hygiene conditions.