San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Fearful Europe strengthens controls as China eases them
A lone visitor strolls across a normally bustling plaza at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in the northern Spanish city.
BARCELONA, Spain — Spain locked down its 46 million citizens Saturday and France ordered the closing of just about everything the rest of the world loves about it — the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the cafes, restaurants and cinema — as governments took increasingly desperate measures to put more space between people and contain the coronavirus.
China, meanwhile, where the scourge first appeared late last year, continued to relax its drastic restrictions, illustrating the way the center of gravity in the crisis has shifted westward. The virus has infected more than 156,000 people worldwide and killed more than 5,800.
In a nationally televised address, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Snchez detailed the battery of exceptional measures put in place as part of a twoweek state of emergency to fight the sharp rise in infections. Later, Spain’s government said Sanchez’s wife had tested positive for coronavirus. Begoa Gmez and the prime minister are in good health, the goverrnment said.
In an echo of the far-reaching measures already imposed in Italy, people will be allowed to leave their homes only to buy food and medicine, commute to work, go to hospitals and banks, or take trips related to the care of the young and the elderly. Those limitations are effective immediately.
Spain also closed all schools, universities, restaurants, bars and hotels nationwide along with nonessential stores.
Spanish authorities said the number of infections climbed past 5,700, half of them in the capital, Madrid. Some flights bound for Spain turned around as word spread of the lockdown.
In Italy, the worst-hit European country, the number of deaths climbed past 1,400 and infections surged roughly 20 percent overnight to more than 21,000 because of what authorities characterized as irresponsible behavior by people still socializing despite the nationwide lockdown.
Paris followed other cities in shuttering major tourist attractions, and France announced it was closing all restaurants, cafes, theaters and nonessential shops starting Sunday.
In the Middle East, Iran’s death toll reached 611, with nearly 13,000 infections.
In the Philippines, police, backed by the army and coast guard, started sealing the capital of Manila from most domestic travelers Sunday in one of Southeast Asia’s most drastic containment moves against the virus.
The measures increasingly mirror those taken by China, which in January quarantined more than 60 million people. The spread of COVID-19 in China has slowed dramatically, according to the National Health Commission. After reporting thousands of new cases per day only a month ago, the commission said Saturday that there were 13 new deaths and just 11 new cases.