Sales of alcohol banned to stop party gatherings
THE pandemic has now infected more than
1.5 million people worldwide and an estimated 90,000 deaths have been recorded.
Thailand: Sales of alcohol will be banned in the capital Bangkok for a 10-day period starting today, because people are flouting social distancing rules by holding drinking parties.
The annual Songkran Lunar New Year festival falls within the no-sales period. The holiday is usually celebrated with parties and drinking, which contributes to a spike in traffic deaths.
The official April 13-15 holiday has already been postponed and organised celebrations cancelled.
Indonesia: President
Joko Widodo has officially banned all civil servants, police officers, military personnel and employees of state-owned companies from returning to their home towns to celebrate the end of Ramadan with families.
Mr Widodo said in a video conference his administration is still evaluating whether a similar prohibition should be imposed on the rest of the people in the world’s most populous Muslim nation. The decision will be announced within days.
Croatia: The country has started reopening open air markets, in the first sign of easing of strict rules against the spread of the coronavirus.
Wearing protective masks, residents of Zagreb lined up at one of the markets on a sunny day, keeping distance from one another as they waited to buy home-grown fruit and vegetables.
Portugal: Authorities have halted commercial flights at the country’s five international airports.
Officials are concerned that over the Easter weekend people may be reluctant to stay at home, as they have been instructed to do for weeks under a national state of emergency.
Additional restrictions came into force yesterday for a four-day period, including a ban on people leaving their council area or more than five people gathering in one place, as well as a flight prohibition.
Slovakia: Authorities have ordered a lockdown of five poor settlements where the Roma live separated from the majority population after 31 people there tested positive for the coronavirus.
Prime Minister Igor Matovic announced the lockdown, the first in Slovakia, saying: “I’ll be glad if you understand the necessity of the decision.”
Military health personnel started the testing yesterday in 33 settlements where the poorest of the Roma live, often without access to running water or sewerage systems. Authorities fear such conditions would result in a rapid spreading of the infection.
Belgium: Authorities in the Walloon region have requested the support of armed forces to tackle the situation at nursing homes, where several hundred residents have died because of Covid-19.
One-third of the deaths linked to the virus in the region of southern Belgium have been registered in care homes.
Russia: The number of cases has surpassed 10,000, after health officials reported 1,459 new cases, with 76 deaths. Moscow accounted for 6,698 infections.
President Vladimir Putin earlier this month ordered most Russians to stay off work until the end of April as part of a partial economic shutdown to curb the spread of the virus.