France to start four-week curfew in cities
EU launches color code to guide travelers as curbs stiffen amid virus flare-up
A curfew from 9 pm to 6 am will be implemented in Paris and eight big cities in France from midnight Oct 16 and will last for at least four weeks to stem the spread of coronavirus, President Emmanuel Macron announced on Oct 14.
“A curfew will apply to the Ile-deFrance region … and eight metropolitan areas — Grenoble, Lille, Rouen, Lyon, Aix-Marseille, Saint-Etienne, Toulouse, Montpellier and Rouen,” Macron said in a televised interview.
France has been in a second wave of the coronavirus epidemic with an average of 20,000 new infection cases per day. “We have now entered a phase to which we must react … The virus is everywhere in France,” Macron added.
The situation is worrying and the curfew is a “pertinent” measure while having the whole country locked down again would be “disproportionate”, he explained.
Britain, Germany and Italy face similar difficulties. Emanuele Catena, the director of intensive care at Milan’s Sacco hospital, said on Oct 14 that he is worried hospitals will not be able to cope if the upswing in COVID-19 cases in Italy continues.
“There are elements of major concern,” Catena told Sky TG24.
“If this trend continues in the coming days and the coming weeks … this situation could potentially become highly explosive and alarming”.
In Brussels, the European Union’s member states on Oct 13 adopted a common color code to define the levels of risk related to the coronavirus outbreak. The move is aimed at making it easier for Europeans to manage their lives as more movement restrictions come in to counter a resurgence in infections.
“Travel restrictions have made it difficult for some of our citizens to get to work, to university or to visit their loved ones,” said Michael Roth, minister of state for Europe at the German Federal Foreign Office.
“It is our common duty to ensure coordination on any measures which affect free movement and to give our citizens all the information they need when deciding on their travel.” Germany holds the rotating presidency of the EU.
The colors green, orange and red will be used to determine the status of each European region on a single map updated weekly with data provided by member states. Gray will be used for regions without sufficient data. The
map will be maintained by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
Travelers from green regions will be free to go wherever they wish, whereas travelers from red, orange and gray regions might need to undergo quarantine and testing. The recommendation applies to all 27 EU countries, as well as Britain during the transition period. The map will also include Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
More European countries have been tightening rules to cope with a resurgence in COVID-19 infections.
Starting at 10 pm on Oct 14, cafes and restaurants in the Netherlands would be closed. Take-away services will still be allowed, and hotels can
remain open, but restricted to guests only.
Italy, the Czech Republic and Latvia are adding new restrictions to limit the spread of coronavirus, as some of them have recorded the highest daily cases ever in the past week.
Russia reported a record daily high of 14,231 cases on Oct 14, pushing its total number of infections to 1,340,409. The country’s coronavirus task force said that 239 people had died in the latest 24-hour period, bringing the death toll to 23,205.
Globally, there have been 38.42 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 1.09 million deaths as of Oct 15, according to a tally kept by the Johns Hopkins University in the United
States, where roughly 8 million cases have been confirmed with more than 216,000 deaths.
US President Donald Trump’s youngest son Barron Trump had contracted COVID-19 with no symptoms and now tests negative, first lady Melania Trump posted in a family health update on Oct 14. “Luckily he is a strong teenager and exhibited no symptoms,” the first lady said of her 14-year-old son.
Melania said she experienced a “roller coaster of symptoms”, praising the medical care the first family received.
“I experienced body aches, a cough and headaches, and felt extremely tired most of the time. I chose to go a more natural route in terms of medicine, opting more for vitamins and healthy food,” she said.
In Chile, the number of patients in critical condition due to COVID-19 has decreased in recent days, Chilean Minister of Health Enrique Paris reported on Oct 14.
The official also stated that 1,089 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the last 24 hours, raising the total number to 485,372.
South Korea reported 110 more COVID-19 cases within the previous 24-hour period as of midnight Oct 14, raising the total number of infections to 24,988.
Several coronavirus clusters have emerged in Australia’s two most populous states, officials said on Oct 14, prompting the biggest, New South Wales, to delay easing some restrictions.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she was concerned the state was on the cusp of another major community transmission.