Nations vow economic aid packages
Public health measures lead to confrontations
ROME — European governments Thursday promised more relief to their citizens.
France’s government announced a $19.4 billion plan to support restaurants, hotels and other tourist facilities that have been closed since midMarch amid the coronavirus crisis.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe promised the French on Thursday that they will be able to go on vacation in France in July and August, including in French overseas territories, as the country has started lifting its lockdown this week.
Germany’s parliament approved plans to increase the amount paid to people who spend months in a government-backed, short-time work program during the coronavirus crisis.
Companies are making extensive use of the program, which was credited with keeping down unemployment in the financial crisis over a decade ago. It allows them to keep employees on the payroll while they await better times.
The announcements came after Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte promised a massive package of tax cuts and other financial aid to help businesses and families.
“Your cry of alarm didn’t escape us,” Conte said late Wednesday.
His government also promised to legalize the status of foreigners, many of them illegal migrants who are crop-pickers, babysitters and caretakers.
In China, some residential compounds in Wuhan have begun testing inhabitants for the coronavirus as a program to test everyone in the Chinese city of 11 million people in 10 days got underway.
One compound in the city’s Qiaokou district said several hundred people had been tested since Wednesday. Another compound in the same district said Thursday it was registering residents before starting.
The city ordered local communities to test everyone after six new cases surfaced last weekend, the first infections there in more than a month.
Wuhan, where the virus was first detected last December, was the hardest-hit city in China with 3,869 reported deaths.
China reported three new cases nationwide for 82,929 cases in total.
Australia said it will push for an inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus even if it hurts trade relations with China.
The world’s public health measures continue to provoke conflict between officials and the public.
In Ethiopia, police said they arrested over 1,000 people for refusing to wear face masks in public, while in Greece a spat broke out over a government plan to install cameras in high school classrooms. The idea is to provide livestreaming to allow for reduced classroom attendance when schools reopen next week. But a privacy watchdog and a left-wing opposition party called cameras a serious privacy risk.
In many parts of the world, communities and individuals were finding inventive ways to cope with what many view as a “new normal.”
Chinese people looking for some stay-at-home retail therapy have tuned into livestream shopping.
Others seeking spiritual support and human connections are worshipping remotely via online religious services, including from the Vatican and village churches.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday announced the lifting of a state of emergency in most parts of the country ahead of schedule.
Abe lifted the measure for 39 of the country’s 47 prefectures, effective immediately, while keeping the measure in place for eight others, including Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hokkaido, where risks still remain high.
In New Zealand, malls, retail stores and restaurants reopened Thursday, and many people returned to their workplaces as the nation of 5 million people ended most of its coronavirus lockdown restrictions.