Lockdown continues to be eased in some countries
LOCKDOWN CONTINUES to ease in some countries around the world, with the reopening of rail networks in India and million of people in the Philippines now able to leave their homes again.
In the United States, some of the leading experts on infectious diseases were last night preparing to speak at a Senate hearing – a setting where President Donald Trump cannot control the agenda. Democratic senators were expected to ask tough questions about the death toll in the US, its testing capabilities and perceived government failures.
In India, where a strict lockdown has so far minimised cases among the population of 1.3bn, some business have resumed even as infection numbers and deaths rise, while some trains have started running.
Fears of infection spikes in countries that have loosened up were confirmed in recent days in Germany, where new clusters were linked to three slaughterhouses; in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the crisis started; and in South Korea, where 85 new cases were linked to nightclubs that reopened after anti-virus measures were eased.
In France, the country’s health minister has promised robust contact tracing and pledged that the country will test 700,000 people a week. Yesterday, with progress unclear, the nation’s highest court ordered the government to take extreme care in protecting privacy rights, casting doubt on how to proceed.
Meanwhile, President Trump said: “We have met the moment, and we have prevailed.”
He said later that he was referring to virus testing and insisted all Americans who want tests can get them – even though experts say that capacity does not exist.
Only yesterday did his administration say it believed it had enough tests for a nationwide testing campaign to address significant death rates in nursing homes and other care facilities.
Worldwide, the virus has infected more than 4.1m people and killed over 286,000, including more than 150,000 in Europe and 80,000 in the US, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Experts believe those numbers understate the outbreak’s true toll.