Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
European borders reopen
A Geneva Airport worker offers a mask to a passenger arriving Monday as European countries began opening their borders after three months of coronavirus closures.
European countries reopened borders Monday after a three-month coronavirus shutdown, although visitors outside the continent are still being kept away and there was uncertainty over whether many Europeans will quickly embrace travel outside their home countries.
Reopening continued in Mexico and Brazil despite cases climbing in the two largest nations in Latin America, where authorities struggled to handle the pandemic’s effect on already-weak medical systems.
The need for constant vigilance came into sharp focus as China, where covid-19 first emerged late last year, rushed to contain an outbreak in the capital, Beijing.
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, noted that it took more than two months to reach 100,000 reported cases globally, now a daily norm. Each day, nearly three-fourths of the new cases come from 10 countries — mostly in South Asia and the Americas, he said.
In the U.S., where reopenings continued, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo decried “rampant” violations of virus restrictions and said restaurants and bars could lose their liquor licenses if they don’t enforce masks and social distancing.
“People are violating everything,” Cuomo said, adding, “to local governments, I say do your job.”
TURNING THE PAGE
In Europe, Mallorca’s first tourists in 93 days touched down Monday, saying they feel safe in the popular Spanish island and ready to make the most of the beach and sunny weather without the usual hordes of visitors.
Spain prioritized the entry of a first batch of thousands of Germans who were allowed to fly to its Balearic Islands. The country waived its 14-day quarantine to test out best practices in the coronavirus era.
Spaniards themselves are still not allowed to travel to the archipelago and it will take one more week for the rest of the country, one of the hardest-hit by the pandemic in Europe, to catch up with other countries in the region, where border checks dropped overnight Monday.
The European Union’s 27 nations, as well as those in the passport-free travel area, which also includes a few non-EU nations such as Switzerland, aren’t expected to start opening to Americans, Asians and other visitors from outside the continent until at least next month.
Announcing the reopening of borders and Paris restaurants, French President Emmanuel Macron said it’s time “to turn the page of the first act of the crisis” and “rediscover our taste for freedom.”
But he warned: “This doesn’t mean the virus has disappeared and we can totally let down our guard. … The summer of 2020 will be a summer unlike any other.”
Social distancing was in short supply as London’s Oxford Street shops reopened and crowds jammed the entrance to London’s Niketown store despite employees’ efforts to maintain an orderly line. Paris bistros like Cafe Des Anges welcomed back regular customers.
“It’s very hard to get people who are sitting at the bar to respect social distancing,” said cafe manager Virgile Grunberg. “People have missed this, because they come in every morning before work, have a little coffee and a discussion, so of course it’s part of Paris.”
The need to get Europe’s tourism industry up and running again is urgent, especially for Mediterranean nations like Spain, Italy and Greece, as the economic fallout of the crisis mushrooms.
In a sign of that anticipation, workers in a Mallorca hotel welcomed with cheers the bus ferrying the first guests from the airport. They had gone through temperature checks on arrival and had to leave their contact information and health status registered with authorities.
“We are totally happy that we can get out,” said Martin Hofman, who traveled on the first flight from Duesseldorf, adding that his holiday couldn’t be postponed “and to stay in Germany was not an option.”
Daniel Borgerding, who squeezed in the last-minute visit before his wife is due to give birth, said the couple was looking forward to “a quiet and relaxed time, empty beaches, restaurants, bars and a little more space than usual.”
Regional officials have expanded the capacity of the archipelago’s health system in case any tourists shows signs of infection.
Greece welcomed the first international flights whose passengers didn’t face compulsory covid-19 tests to Athens and Thessaloniki. Direct international flights to regional Greek airports, including its islands, will begin July 1. Visitors will be subject to random testing.
“A lot will depend on whether people feel comfortable to travel and whether we can project Greece as a safe destination,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis acknowledged.
Europe’s reopening is a complicated, shifting patchwork of different rules, and not everyone is equally free to travel everywhere. Norway and Denmark, for example, are keeping their borders closed with Sweden, whose virus strategy avoided a lockdown but produced a relatively high per-capita death rate. Other nations also have travel restrictions for Swedes.
Prime Minister Stefan Lofven rejected the idea that Sweden’s strategy had failed, citing a continuing decline in hospitalizations and fatalities. While the rate of new infections has increased, officials say that reflects a long-delayed increase in testing.
BEIJING EXPANDS TESTING
Beijing has set about testing hundreds of thousands of people for coronavirus in an exhaustive effort to stamp out a new breakout of the disease in the Chinese capital.
After dozens of new cases were reported over the weekend, continuing into Monday, authorities mobilized almost 100,000 community workers to carry out tests on everyone who has worked in or visited the Xinfadi market. It’s the largest fruit, vegetable and meat market in the capital, supplying 70% of its fresh vegetables and 80% of its fruit.
But after discovering more than 90 infections linked to the market over the weekend, and a further 36 being reported Monday, health authorities are taking military-style action to try to ensure the virus doesn’t spread further.
The sudden appearance of scores of new infections, both symptomatic and asymptomatic, highlights the resilience of the virus and its rapid spread despite tight social controls. It also underscores the dangers of markets.
Everyone who has visited the market since May 30 is ordered to isolate themselves at home, and nearby residential compounds have been sealed off so residents can’t wander freely. Nine kindergartens and elementary schools were also ordered to close.
Beijing authorities have quickly imposed strict controls across the capital, requiring students to again wear masks in their classrooms, ordering restaurants to cancel banquets, and telling gyms and movie theaters to close up. Fresh salmon has been removed from markets and stores all over the city, and frozen and fresh meat everywhere will now be screened, according to authorities.
IN OTHER COUNTRIES:
■ Mexico City residents were free to drive without restrictions, and subway and bus stations resumed service as the city of 9 million continued its gradual return based on hospital occupancy levels. As of Saturday, the capital and the surrounding state had 74% of their hospital beds occupied. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador encouraged people to get out of the house and get the economy moving again.
■ South Korea reported 37 new cases. Authorities said 25 of those came from the Seoul area, where health authorities are scrambling to trace infections linked to entertainment and leisure activities, church gatherings, warehouse workers and door-to-door salesmen.
■ Even as Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country was emerging from the crisis, authorities reported 8,246 new cases in 24 hours, bringing its total to 537,210. Russia, which has recorded more than 7,000 deaths, is behind only the U.S. and Brazil in total infections.
■ India’s home minister offered 500 train carriages for use as makeshift hospital wards as New Delhi struggled to contain a spike in cases. The Health Ministry reported a jump of more than 11,000 infections nationwide for a third straight day.
■ Egypt reported its highest number of new cases and fatalities in one day, with 1,691 infections and 97 deaths. It has the highest death rate in the Arab world, but the government has resisted a full lockdown to keep the economy functioning. Authorities plan to reopen airports for tourism to less hard-hit destinations next month.
■ Ukraine resumed flights to some countries, though authorities will still request those arriving from countries with high infection numbers to spend two weeks in quarantine. Ukraine’s caseload has spiked recently to nearly 32,000 after a decision in May to resume public transportation and reopen malls and gyms.