EUROPE PUTS brakes on travel as virus surges back.
ROME — With coronavirus cases rising after an early-summer ebb, governments across Europe are rethinking the wisdom of an open continent, while reinstituting quarantines and other border controls.
The changes reflect a sense that travel — and the attempt to reboot the Mediterranean’s tourism economy — has undercut Europe’s fight to control the virus.
Vacation-popular Greece and Croatia, which largely missed Europe’s first wave, have seen cases surge in some of their most-visited regions and are now dealing with their largest outbreaks to date.
Meanwhile, countries that had gotten their outbreaks under control are partly blaming travel for an uptick in cases. Italy reports that 30% of its new cases come from people who were infected abroad; Germany puts its figure at nearly 40%. In a reference to the risk of returning holidaymakers, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said that “the virus is coming to Austria by car.”
European governments have agreed that it’s OK to curtail free movement — a fundamental principle of the European Union — from places that have higher rates of transmission. But the newly imposed restrictions can be complicated to follow.
In some cases, they apply to everyone traveling — or returning — from a specific country. In other cases, they are limited to certain “highrisk” areas. People traveling from Barcelona, Spain, to Belgium must observe a mandatory 14-day quarantine. For those who have been in Madrid, a quarantine is merely recommended.
In Germany, negative tests can get people out of having to self-isolate upon arrival. Some other countries offer no option but to hunker down for two weeks.
BRITAIN WARY
Britain, which is negotiating its post-Brexit relationship with the European Union, has been steadily removing European countries from its safe list. First came Spain and Luxembourg in late July, then Belgium, France, Malta and the Netherlands.
Croatia and Austria came off on Friday — a decision that forced tens of thousands of vacationers to either race home or be subject to quarantine.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s scientific advisers warned that the pandemic may be growing again, as ministers put the U.K.’s second-largest city on alert and tightened rules in parts of northwest England.
The U.K.-wide ‘R’ number is in a range of 0.9-1.1, the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies said Friday in a statement, which also warned that infections could be rising in London as well as in northwest and southwest England. A rate above one means the virus can begin to spread uncontrollably again, with a single case potentially infecting more than one other person.
“SAGE does not have confidence that R is currently below 1 in England,” the panel said. “Recent changes in transmission are not yet fully reflected in these estimates because the data used to calculate R and growth rate reflect the situation from a few weeks ago.”
Ministers added the city of Birmingham, England, to a watchlist of areas that may require further intervention, with an increase of testing and contact tracing.
But it wasn’t all bad news: Pandemic measures will be eased in Wigan, Rossendale and Darwen next week, the Department of Health said.
“To prevent a second peak and keep covid-19 under control, we need robust, targeted intervention where we see a spike in cases,” Health Secretary Matt Hancock said. “The only way we can keep on top of this deadly virus is through decisive action led by the people who know their areas best, wherever possible through consensus with a local area.”
SCHOOL SETBACKS IN GERMANY
At least 41 schools in Berlin have reported that students or teachers have become infected with the coronavirus not even two weeks after schools reopened in the German capital.
The Berliner Zeitung newspaper published the numbers Friday, and city education authorities confirmed the figures to The Associated Press.
Hundreds of students and teachers are in quarantine, the paper reported. Elementary schools, high schools and trade schools are all affected, it said. There are 825 schools in Berlin.
The reopening of schools and the risk of virus clusters building up in educational institutions and then spreading beyond to families and further into society have been a matter of great concern and it’s an issue that’s hotly debated in Germany.
Education in Germany isn’t in the hands of the federal government, but under the auspices of the country’s 16 states, and thus there are many differing covid-19 rules in place, especially when it comes to wearing masks. While some states are still on summer vacation, others have been back to school for about two weeks.
Berlin was one of the first places in Germany to reopen its schools after the summer holidays. Children are obliged to wear masks in the hallways, during breaks and when they enter the classroom, but they can take them off once they sit in their places and classes begin.
Some critics say the measures in Berlin are too relaxed and both students and teachers should wear masks during lessons as well.
LOCKDOWN IN LEBANON
In the Mideast, Lebanon on Friday began a two-week partial lockdown and nighttime curfew after coronavirus cases increased.
Many businesses were closed Friday morning in Beirut even though some sectors, including banks, groceries, bookshops and pharmacies were allowed to open. Restaurants, nightclubs, beaches and clothing shops are among the businesses ordered to close by the Ministry of Interior.
The country’s top Sunni Muslim authority ordered all mosques closed and suspended prayers inside them around Lebanon until further notice.
Virus cases had already been on the rise since the beginning of July, when an earlier lockdown was lifted and Lebanon’s only international airport was reopened. At the end of June, Lebanon registered 1,778 cases. That number has since multiplied more than five times in seven weeks.
The numbers shot up following the Aug. 4 explosion of nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate stored at Beirut’s port. More than 180 people were killed, more than 6,000 injured and a quarter of a million people were left with homes unfit to live in. The blast overwhelmed the city’s hospitals and also badly damaged two that had a key role in handling virus cases.
After the blast, medical officials have warned of an increased risk of catching the virus because of crowding at hospitals and funerals, or as people searched through the rubble. Protests and demonstrations also broke out after the blast as Lebanese vented their anger at authorities.
In the United Arab Emirates, Dr. Saif al-Dhaheri of the UAE’s National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Management Authority warned that nighttime curfews and lockdowns could resume in parts of the country as coronavirus case numbers spike.
Hong Kong will offer free coronavirus tests to its residents starting Sept. 1 as it grapples with its worst outbreak since the pandemic began, leader Carrie Lam said Friday.
The program, which will last up to two weeks, will allow every Hong Kong resident to be tested on a voluntary basis, she said.
Lam said the testing was possible because of support from Beijing, which is providing resources such as laboratory staff to boost testing capacity in the semi-autonomous Chinese city.
Information for this article was contributed by Chico Harlan, Michael Birnbaum, William Glucroft and Elinda Labropoulou of The Washington Post; by Alex Morales of Bloomberg News; and by Kirsten Grieshaber, Bassem Mroue, Aniruddha Ghosal and Zen Soo of The Associated Press.