San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Mexico eases virus controls as cases drop
Mexico is reducing its COVID19 alert level in about half of the country’s states amid a drop in infections and hospitalizations in many regions, including the capital.
Mexico City announced that starting this week gyms, indoor swimming pools and churches will be allowed to open and restaurants can operate outdoors until 10 p.m. Mexico’s capital let shopping malls partially reopen last week.
“The epidemic continues but it is, at least at the moment, heading downward,” said the federal government’s spokesperson on the pandemic, Hugo LopezGatell. “Vaccination is going forward; let’s continue calmly and optimistically but with prudence and discipline.”
The government is trying to speed up the vaccination program with the authorization of two new vaccines and the arrival of more batches. In total, fewer than 86,000 people have been fully vaccinated in a country with 126 million inhabitants.
Mexico uses a red, orange, yellow and green level coronavirus alert system. Of the 13 states that have been at the maximum level, only two are left in red — Guanajuato and Guerrero. The only state in green is Chiapas in the country’s south.
As of Saturday, Mexico has registered 1.9 million infections and at least 172,557 confirmed deaths.
FRANCE
Curbs ordered against variant
New coronavirus virus variants are spreading fast in multiple regions of France, prompting tougher mask rules and a curfew crackdown around the English Channel coast.
The variant dominant in Britain is now responsible for a large majority of recent virus cases around the French port city of Dunkirk, according to a statement Saturday from the regional health agency.
The regional administration ordered tougher mask rules and urged people in Dunkirk and some other areas not to leave the city in order to limit the spread. The city’s saturated hospitals are sending virus patients to other regions amid a spike in the number of people needing intensive care. CHINA
Drastic cut in holiday travel
Railway journeys in China during the usually busy Lunar New Year holiday are down almost 70% amid calls for people to stay where they are to avoid a new outbreak of the coronavirus.
The China State Railway Group reported 52 million passenger trips from Jan. 28 to Feb. 11. The travel rush is considered the world’s largest annual human migration, when urban residents, migrant workers and students return to their hometowns for family gatherings.
Air and bus travel are also down considerably, but one figure is up: China’s box office receipts smashed the previous oneday record on the first day of the new lunar Year of the Ox, bringing in more than $269 million. WASHINGTON
Military boosts vaccine teams
The Pentagon has approved the deployment of 20 more military vaccination teams that will be prepared to go out to communities around the country.
That puts the depart
ment on pace to deploy as many as 19,000 troops if the 100 planned teams are realized. The troop number is almost double what federal authorities initially thought would be needed.
Chief Pentagon spokesman John Kirby says Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s latest approval brings the number of COVID19 vaccination teams so far authorized to 25, with a total of roughly 4,700 service members. He says the teams, which
largely involve active duty forces, are being approved in a phased approach, based on the needs of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The Pentagon first received the original request from FEMA in late January for vaccination teams. Kirby said only one team has been deployed so far due to logistical issues with local and state authorities to determine the infrastructure needed.