New fears as virus refuses to holiday
PARIS: Countries across the world are tightening restrictions to fight a resurgence in the coronavirus as the European Union offers to help vaccine manufacturers expand production to improve distribution “bottlenecks”.
From curfews to alcohol bans and complete lockdowns, governments are redoubling their efforts to tackle the surge in cases.
Experts predict a sharp rise in cases and deaths after weeks of holiday gatherings.
Police in France and Spain broke up weekend revels that flouted anti- COVID measures.
In Bangkok, the city’s nightlife shut down following a ban on bars, nightclubs, and restaurant alcohol sales. The virus has been detected in 53 of the kingdom’s 77 provinces.
In Tokyo, the city’s governor asked the Japan government to declare a new state of emergency as the country battled a third wave of the coronavirus with record numbers of new cases.
The race to vaccinate is set to dominate the coming year, with EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides defending delays in distributing the vaccines. “The bottleneck at the moment is not the volume of orders but the worldwide shortage of production capacity,” she said.
The EU would help drug companies in their efforts to develop candidate vaccines.
India on Saturday staged nationwide drills to start one of the world’s biggest coronavirus vaccination programs as its drug regulator prepared to approve the AstraZeneca- Oxford University shot.
In the US, the vaccination program has been beset by logistic problems, even as the world’s worst- hit country passed 20 million cases.
In Russia, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said more than 800,000 people had received the domestically produced Sputnik V vaccine and that 1.5 million doses had been distributed in the country of about 147 million people.
The French government lengthened an overnight curfew by two hours in parts of the country.
On Saturday, French police booked 1200 revellers after an illegal two- day rave in northwestern France finally ended after more than two days of partying that also sparked clashes with police. About 800 were booked for flouting antivirus measures.
The regional health authority in Brittany noted the “high risk of the spread of COVID- 19” at the event.
“We knew what we were risking; we had to party, for a year everything has been stuck,” said one of the revellers. Spanish police broke up a party of 300 on Saturday near Barcelona that had been going for more than 40 hours.
Footballers were among those caught breaking coronavirus rules, with Tottenham’s Erik Lamela, Sergio Reguilon and Giovani Lo Celso to be disciplined after a picture emerged of them attending a large party.