SEOUL NIGHTCLUBS SHUT AFTER SURGE IN NEW INFECTIONS
SEOUL has shut down more than 2,100 nightclubs, hostess bars and discos after dozens of coronavirus infections were linked to clubgoers who went out last weekend as South Korea relaxed social distancing guidelines.
The measures imposed by mayor Park Won-soon came after the national government urged entertainment venues around the nation to close or enforce anti-virus measures, including distancing, temperature checks, keeping customer lists and requiring employees to wear masks.
Mr Park said the closures will be maintained until the city concludes that infections risks have been meaningfully lowered.
South Korea’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention earlier said 18 fresh cases were reported in the 24 hours to midnight on Friday, all but one of them linked to a 29-year-old man who visited three clubs in the capital’s Itaewon district last Saturday before testing positive on Tuesday.
But Mr Park said 16 more cases were confirmed in Seoul alone in the following hours. He said this took the number of infections linked to clubgoers to 40 – 27 in Seoul, 12 in neighbouring Incheon and Gyeonggi province towns, and one in the southern port city of Busan.
In Germany, a fresh outbreak in slaughterhouses also illustrated the challenges authorities face as they seek to open up their economies.
Germany and South Korea have both carried out extensive testing and contact tracing, and have been hailed for avoiding the mass deaths that have overwhelmed other countries in their regions, but even there authorities have struggled to find the balance between saving lives and saving jobs.
Health officials are scrambling to contain fresh outbreaks at three slaughterhouses – two in the west of Germany and one in the north.
The response is seen as a test for the government’s new strategy of getting local authorities to tackle any surge in new cases, which was agreed on Wednesday as part of a plan for gradually easing restrictions and returning to normality.
German foreign minister Heiko Maas says Europe must acknowledge it “wasn’t well-prepared” for the pandemic.
In a statement marking Europe Day, Mr Maas said most countries, including Germany, were initially focused on coping with the outbreak at home.
While defending the national response as “necessary, in order to safeguard our ability to act”, he said the European Union had “grown in the crisis”.
The EU’s sluggish response has given way to cross-border medical aid, a massive financial support package and coordinated scientific research programmes.
Mr Maas called the solidarity provided by EU member states “unique in the world”, adding that Germany wants the bloc to emerge from the crisis stronger.
The US government on Friday reported unemployment had surged to its highest level since the Great Depression of the 1930s, adding to conflict over when to allow businesses to reopen.
The Labour Department reported unemployment stood at 14.7% after 20.5 million jobs vanished in April.
The department, citing miscounting of some workers by its survey-takers, said the true rate probably was closer to 20%. Some economists said the total might be even higher at 23.6%, not far from the 1939 peak of 25%.
President Donald Trump is pushing state governors to allow factories, restaurants and shops to reopen despite warnings that it might lead to a deadly spike in infections.
Elsewhere, Pakistan bowed to economic pressure and allowed some businesses to reopen despite a surge in cases, while countries including the US, Brazil and Italy were also wrestling with how to ease curbs on business and public activity.
Worldwide, the virus has infected at least 3.9 million people and killed more than 270,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University based on data reported by governments.
Pakistan has allowed shops, factories, construction sites and some other businesses to reopen, while 1,637 new cases and 24 deaths were reported. That was close to Thursday’s one-day peak of 1,764 new infections and raised the country’s total to 27,474.
Prime minister Imran Khan said his government is rolling back curbs because it cannot support millions of families who depend on daily wages.
The government warned controls will be reimposed if the public fails to follow social distancing guidelines.
China, where the pandemic began in December, announced plans to reopen more schools in the capital Beijing.
More than 84,200 junior high school students and 13,200 teachers will return to class tomorrow, the city government announced. Nearly 50,000 high school students went back to class on April 27.
Controls including checks for the virus’ telltale fever are still in place at apartment complexes and public buildings in the Chinese capital.
Italy’s government said it would take legal action to stop a northern province, Bolzano, from reopening stores this weekend in defiance of a national plan to wait until later this month.
Italy has reported more than 217,000 virus cases and 30,200 deaths.
In Brazil, the country’s fifth-biggest city, Fortaleza, started a lockdown on Friday amid surging infections, even as President Jair Bolsonaro asked the Supreme Court to order states to roll back restrictions on business.
Brazil has more than 140,000 cases and 9,600 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.
M
ANY people dream of opening their own restaurant – but what if it became a reality only for your pride and joy to suddenly be facing an uncertain future.
This is the position that many of Wales’ restaurant owners find themselves in as the coronavirus pandemic continues and bars, pubs and restaurants across the nation remain closed.
These places that were once so full of life, laughter and love are suddenly quiet and their owners, although many of them agree with the lockdown and the reasons behind it, are anxiously waiting for a time they can reopen and save the businesses they fought so hard to build and make successful.
Hywel Griffith is head chef and part-owner at Beach House restaurant on the picturesque Gower peninsula, one of only six restaurants in Wales that made it into the Michelin Guide last year.
With panoramic views of stunning Oxwich Bay, the 48-seat restaurant is now empty and silent of its usual buzz of activity.
Hywel, who trained at Coleg Menai in Bangor, said: “The worst thing is the unknown, no-one knows what’s going on or how long it will go on for.
“It’s a very odd time for a lot of restaurants. It’s horrible going there, I went the other day to do a bit of filming and there’s dust on everything. It’s weird because we’re used to it being busy.
“A lot of places are doing delivery or takeaway but we’re so remote here we’ve decided not too, there just isn’t the population here, so we’d sell a little but we’d lose even more money doing that.”
Usually, the chef would be working 15 to 18-hour days to build on the growing success the Beach House has seen since it opened in 2016.
Hywel believes the support packages and furlough schemes have saved many businesses and that the Government has been “hugely supportive”.
Ten full-time staff and seven parttime staff at Beach House are on furlough at the moment.
“You can’t prepare for something like this. It’s like something from a Saturday night movie, a disease spreading across the world is something you don’t realistically prepare for.
“I’ve always had a can-do attitude, do what you need to do no matter what and figure it out afterwards. I always took that job I was scared of, I just took it and figured out how to do it after, that’s how you grow as a person.
“We’re confident we’ll reopen, the last four years have been brilliant for us business-wise.
“Everybody wants to get back to it.
Hopefully at the weekend they’re going to let us know the plan and the stages to get back to normal.”
Tonight Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to lay out his plan for taking Britain out of the lockdown. It was reported last week that there would be five stages and that pubs, bars and restaurants may open as part of stage four of the plan at the end of August or in early September.
Asked whether he thought the restaurant could reopen with social distancing measures in place, Hywel said: “It’s a flawed concept. You can have all the gap you want between tables, but waiters go table to table so all that would do is ease people’s minds.
“We’re not going to have an individual waiter for every table – if one person’s got it it’s going to be spread throughout the restaurant.
“I don’t see how that would help, to space tables out massively in restaurants. The idea, I think, of table spacing is more aimed towards budget restaurants where they pack them in, but I can’t see how it would stop the spread of the virus.”
Soon, Hywel will be competing in the final of Great British Menu on the BBC after winning the regional round with his take on Welsh folklore and legends to fit the theme for the series of children’s literature.
“Representing Wales in Great British Menu shortly after winning a Michelin star is like a life’s ambition realised. I think Wales is normally not celebrated enough in the GBM kitchen and for me that was the most important element to get right and that’s why I took inspiration from the legends of Wales,” he added.
Further East, in Swansea’s Uplands, a newly-opened gin bar and restaurant, Maisies, is using the lockdown to renovate the premises ready for reopening.
Steve Herbert part-owns Maisies with his daughter, Georgia, and they are investing thousands in the business, which opened in November, to turn it into a world street food restaurant using local suppliers.
“The gamble has been keeping me awake at night. I wonder should we just walk away from it or take the gamble,” said Steve. “I’ve committed tens of thousands of pounds to the refurbishment to keep the business afloat already. I think long term there’s a really good future in it, Uplands is an up-and coming area and we want to cater to the younger demographic that is there now.”
Getting the renovation done at the moment is a challenge, because they can only have one tradesperson in the property at one time due to social distancing. Soon, they have an artist from Bristol coming to paint street art on the walls.
The business has taken the £50,000 coronavirus Bounce Back loan, designed to give struggling businesses an injection of cash they can pay back long term, and a £25,000 grant, as well as furloughing all their staff.
“The problem is that being closed costs us £62,000 every six months. We’ve still got to pay electricity, gas and pay the rent. Also, if we were to walk away you’re not going to find anyone to take it on at the moment.”
Introducing their new street food menu, Maisies is beginning takeaway deliveries and will bring back some