Countries worry gains against pandemic are being lost.
Countries worry gains against the pandemic are being lost
ADRID >> From the palm-fringed beaches of southern India to the bar-lined streets of a Spanish island and the rolling hills of Ireland, restaurants, pubs and clubs are emerging as front lines in efforts to prevent the re-emergence of the coronavirus.
With Europe’s summer vacation season kicking into high gear for millions weary of months of lockdown, scenes of drunken British and German tourists on Spain’s Mallorca island ignoring social distancing rules and reports of American visitors flouting quarantine measures in Ireland raised fears of a resurgence of infections in countries that have battled for months to flatten the COVID-19 curve.
Germany’s foreign minister condemned the rowdy tourists for imperiling hard-won gains in efforts to contain the virus.
“We just recently managed to open the borders again in Europe. We cannot risk this by reckless behavior,” Heiko Maas told Funke Media Group. “Otherwise, new measures will be inevitable.”
In a move designed to stop the spread of the coronavirus and shake off the region’s reputation as a party hub, regional authorities in the Balearic Islands ordered the closure from Thursday of all establishments along Mallorca’s “Beer St.” and “Ham St.,” as the popular party areas near the beach of Palma de Mallorca are known, and on another boulevard in nearby Magaluf.
Bar owners reacted angrily to the new restrictions on the islands that have seen, like most regions in Spain, recent spikes in in
fections, none of which were traced to visiting tourists or party hot spots. Bars and nightclubs employ some 20,000 people in the region.
“They are undertaking drastic measures that are typical of other countries, closing entire streets and curtailing the free exercise of private initiative,” Jesús Sánchez, who leads a local business association told The Associated Press. He blamed “clandestine parties” for some of the images of tourists ignoring virus containment measures. Meanwhile, in the United States, Florida reached another ominous record with 156 virus deaths reported Thursday as the state continued to experience a swift rise in cases. The state Department of Health reported 13,965 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to nearly 316,000.
Also Thursday, the Boy Scouts of America announced it was postponing next year’s National Jamboree in West Virginia, citing concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.
The increasing number of cases and the pandemic’s persistence and unpredictability made it impossible for the Boy Scouts to comply with its “Be Prepared” motto, according to an announcement on the organization’s website.
And Brazil, which hit at least 75,000 confirmed deaths Wednesday was poised to report 2 million confirmed cases Thursday evening. The country has recorded more than 1,000 daily deaths on average in a gruesome plateau that has yet to tilt downward.
At a solemn commemoration service in Madrid, relatives of about 100 COVID-19 victims sat socially distanced with representatives of health workers and other vital professions and with Spain’s king and queen to pay tribute to the dead and those fighting the pandemic.
In an emotional speech, Hernando Calleja said he was sharing the pain of the loss of his brother José María, a well-known journalist and writer in Madrid, with other victims’ relatives.
“Let’s not forget that the coronavirus was and continues to be a cold, cruel and wrecking executioner,” Calleja said at the ceremony at Madrid’s Royal Palace.
Another European tourism hot spot, Greece, lifted a ban on flights from Britain on July 15 and on Thursday welcomed the first arrivals with random testing at Athens airport.
Alexandros Maziotis, a Greek who lives in the UK, said he wasn’t tested.
“I’m planning to be a bit careful, especially the first week, so I make sure I don’t pass something to my parents,” he said.
In France, which has been seeing new outbreaks, Prime Minister Jean Castex said masks would be mandatory in closed public places as of next week — sooner than Aug. 1 as previously announced. One of the Catholic Church’s holiest sites, Lourdes, held its first-ever online pilgrimage, to mark the anniversary of claims by 19th-century girl Bernadette Soubirous that the Virgin Mary appeared to her there.
While stringent lockdown measures have slowed the spread of the virus across much of Europe, there are growing signs of second waves of infections, and the pandemic is still gathering pace elsewhere.
Finland is one of the countries to have eased lockdown measures. On Wednesday night, dozens of people queued shoulder-to-shoulder waiting to get into a Helsinki night club.
More than 13.5 million people have been infected worldwide and over 580,000 have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The true numbers are thought to be far higher for a number of reasons, including limited testing.
India’s record daily increase of nearly 32,700 cases pushed its total close to 1 million and led authorities to reimpose a three-day lockdown and night curfew in the popular western beach state of Goa, two weeks after it was reopened to tourists.
The state’s top elected official, Pramod Sawant, said people there were flouting social distancing rules and not wearing face masks. Nearly 40,000 people have been fined in the past two weeks for not wearing masks.
Israel also registered a new daily record of confirmed coronavirus cases, and a new nationwide lockdown appeared imminent.
Hezi Levi, the Health Ministry director general, told Army Radio that he would be pushing at a meeting Thursday for more stringent movement restrictions, including a possible nationwide lockdown on weekends.
Americans heading overseas were causing consternation in Ireland, amid fears that some were ignoring the government’s requirement that they self-isolate for 14 days after arrival. The Irish Post cited restaurant owners who complained that they had no way of knowing if American visitors had completed the two-week quarantine.
Showing that there can be a way forward, China became the first economy to resume economic growth since the pandemic began in its central city of Wuhan. It reported an unexpectedly strong 3.2% expansion in the latest quarter after lockdowns were lifted and factories and stores reopened. The 6.8% contraction in January-March was the country’s worst downturn since at least the mid-1960s.
The economic news elsewhere was grimmer, however.
More than 1 million Americans sought unemployment benefits last week, indicating that companies are cutting more jobs amid virus surges in the Sunbelt and some of the nation’s most populous states. Layoffs in Florida, Georgia and California rose by tens of thousands, the Labor Department said Thursday in its weekly report.
In Britain, the national statistics office said clear signals were emerging that job losses will skyrocket over coming months to levels not seen since the 1980s.