New virus restrictions in Europe
BERLIN » Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans to come together like they did in the spring to slow the spread of the coronavirus as the country posted another daily record of new cases Saturday.
“Difficult months are ahead of us,” she said in her weekly video podcast. “How winter will be, how our Christmas will be, that will all be decided in these coming days and weeks, and it will be decided by our behavior.”
Meanwhile, new restrictions went into effect in several other European nations in an effort to staunch the resurgence of the pandemic.
In Paris and eight other French cities, restaurants, bars, movie theaters and other establishments were being forced to close no later than 9 p.m. to try to reduce contact among people. The country was deploying 12,000 extra police officers to enforce the new rules.
Many restaurant owners have bristled at the order. An earlier monthslong lockdown devastated the sector.
“I have the right to question the government’s approach, I think it’s a catastrophic measure for the industry,” said Xavier Denamur, who owns Les Philosophes and several other bistros in Paris’s chic Le Marais district, saying that if nothing else, the curfew should be 11 p.m.
“At least that would not destroy us,” he said. “There’s no evidence that this difference of a couple of hours will have any effect on the virus circulating.”
In Britain, a three-tier regional approach to battle the pandemic introduced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson went into effect, with each level bringing progressively tighter restrictions.
On Saturday, tier-2 cities like London and York were subject to a ban on socializing with people from other households indoors, while the county of Lancashire joined Liverpool in tier 3 with the tightest restrictions.
Among other things, that means pubs have been forced to close and socializing with others is banned even in many outdoor settings.
In Northern Ireland a lockdown lasting four weeks came into force Friday. All pubs and restaurants must close except for takeaway services, and schools will close for two weeks for an extended halfterm holiday.
Data from Friday showed that a further 136 people died in the U.K. within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus, bringing the total official toll to 43,429.
The World Health Organization has warned that intensive care units in a number of European cities could reach maximum capacity in the coming weeks if the number of infections doesn’t slow.
Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg joined the list of top politicians who have tested positive for the virus, and was quarantined though he showed no symptoms, his office told Austria’s APA news agency.
The Vatican, meanwhile, said someone who lives in the same hotel as Pope Francis tested positive for the virus, adding to the 11 cases of COVID-19 among the Swiss Guards who protect him.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the country’s head of state, was quarantined after a bodyguard was infected, his office said. A first test came out negative.
Katherine (Kathy) Gale Wallace passed away peacefully at her home in Fairfield, CA on October 2, 2020 at the age of 73. She was predeceased by her father David Risling Jr. and paternal grandparents, David W. Risling and Geneva Mary Orcutt Risling, maternal grandparents Katherine R. McGowan and Donavan John Phelps. Kathy is survived by her mother Barbara P. Risling, loving husband, Edward Wallace, children, Melissa Strickland Morales (and Allan Morales), Robert Wallace (and Carolina Wallace), grandchildren, Anthony Strickland, Kayla Strickland, Joshua Morales, Elizabeth Morales and Hadeja Rush, sisters Peg Murray and Lyn Risling, brother Ken Risling, as well as many nephews and nieces.
Kathy was born in San Luis Obispo, California, when her father was finishing college. Kathy was an enrolled member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe and a Karuk and Yurok tribal descendent. As a child Kathy gathered basketry materials with her grandmother and had several teachers, especially her aunt Vivien Hailstone, who influenced her interest in the traditional art of basket weaving of her ancestors.
Kathy dedicated her adult life learning, teaching, and preserving traditional arts, especially the basketry traditions of her tribal peoples.
She became well known as a basket weaver, educator, and community activist in helping to revive the art of basket weaving throughout California. She was a founding member of the California Indian Basket Weavers Association. She taught for over 20 years, including many workshops on traditional basket gathering and weaving techniques. She helped educate forest service personnel and other state and federal agencies about traditional gathering practices and detrimental effects of pesticides in traditional gathering areas throughout California. She taught classes in Native American Studies,