Jean Castex stated that the government did not plan to return to full closure despite the accumulation of cases; Austria expands mask rules
The AFP has more information on the announcement by French Prime Minister Jean Castex to impose a new lockout, who quotes him as saying:
We will have to be able to live with this virus, without returning to the concept of widespread blocking.
Our strategy doesn’t change. We will have to fight the virus without disrupting our social, cultural and economic life, the schooling of our young people and our ability to live normally.
Castex said 42 of France’s 101 departments are now classified as “red zones” where the virus is circulating rapidly, compared to the previous 28 this week.
“There is no Maginot line, it inevitably ends up reaching maximum vulnerability,” he said, referring to the supposedly unwavering defenses france had built before World War II.
But he did not announce any new primary restrictions, urging others to stick to the rules of social estating and wear face masks.
And the era of quarantine for others with the virus would be shortened from 14 to just seven days, to better adapt to “the era in which there is a genuine threat of contagion,” Castex said.
This resolution has a topical popularity that the quarantine application has proved impossible, given the number of new cases.
Castex also stated that functions would be higher in reaction to long wait times for appointments and results.
Priority instances involving others with proven exposure to Covid-19 patients or who already have symptoms will be assigned reserved locations in control centers, and another 2,000 people will be hired for touch searches.
The UK government is facing a growing reaction from conservative parliamentarians over its new “Rule of Six” law, adding its refusal to stick to Scotland and Wales by exempting young children, while cabinet ministers were divided over the measures.
Boris Johnson on Wednesday unveiled new regulations to update existing rules and ban teams of more than six people from collecting indoors or outdoors in England from Monday, reducing the existing legal limit of 30, to follow an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases.
But in pronouncing the Scottish edition of the new measures on Thursday, Nicola Sturgeon said that under-12s would be exempt and on Friday the Welsh government did the same for children under the age of 11.
Welsh Prime Minister Mark Drakeford said teams of up to 30 others could continue to meet outdoors because “we see no evidence here that coronavirus is transmitted among others when they are in a new air. “
This has led to calls from conservative parliamentarians, some of whom worry that regulations are too draconian and threaten to criminalize Americans for exercising basic freedoms, to call for a review.
Below are some reactions to the lack of action announced through Castex.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex said his government did not forese a new national shutdown, despite the cumulative record of new cases.
Instead, he announced a series of less drastic measures, said this would come with accelerated evidence for precedence instances and give local government the strength for business hours.
Castex said other people had “let their guard down the summer,” according to a translation of France 24. “I ask everyone to act as civicly as possible,” he added.
He said the French government would hire another 2,000 fitness officers to help insinuate others who had been in contact with those who tested positive. Castex announced that those who tested positive are isolated only for seven days instead of 14.
He said it reflected when other people were contagious, adding, “We asked others to respect those seven days to the letter. “
Castex expressed his specific fear of the accumulation of cases, among the elderly, in Marseille, Bordeaux and Guadeloupe.
Health officials reported 9,843 new cases of coronavirus on Thursday, breaking an earlier record of 8,975 to nearly 900, set six days earlier.
The UK reported 3,539 new cases shown, the largest accumulation since 17 May.
There’s more on the British coronavirus blog.
The death toll in Greece from the virus has reached 300, the public fitness firm said, while the total number of infections exceeded 12,700, AFP reports.
News firm Eody said 287 new instances were shown Friday, a day after the announcement of an all-time record of 372 infections in 24 hours. More than 12,734 infections in the country since the start of the pandemic were recorded in August, mainly among the Greeks.
The building attributed to giant concentrations in violation of social estating regulations.
The Greek civil coverage firm has made a mask in all indoor public spaces.
The government has ruled a general blockade after the slow reopening of the economy in May, while foreign visitors have been able to enter since June in hopes of saving part of the economically important tourist season.
Armenia said its land borders would remain closed until January, AFP reports.
Foreign nationals should not cross Armenia’s land borders until 11 January and public meetings of more than 60 people will also be banned in the new year. The use of the mask will also remain mandatory in enclosed public spaces, the government said in a statement.
Restrictions are imposed to prevent the “spread of the disease in Armenia” and public health, the government said.
But the former Soviet country did not enlarge the state of emergency, which it declared in March and ended on Friday.
With a population of around 3 million, Armenia recorded 45,503 cases of coronavirus and 909 deaths. In June, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who himself tested and then recovered, reported widespread quarantine violations.
Armenia’s neighbor, Georgia, one of the world’s least affected countries, postponed the reopening of schools in primary cities on Friday until 1 October after seeing an increase in the number of new coronavirus cases.
The first “travel bubble” of the European pandemic, created in May through Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, erupted after Latvia said it imposed 40 14 days on arrival from Estonia, Reuters reports.
Estonia recorded 21 infections consisting of 100,000 inhabitants in the last two weeks, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, exceeding Latvia’s 16-year quarantine threshold.
Latvia, which has one of the lowest infection rates in the European Union, rejected the European Commission’s advice on the quarantine threshold to 25 new cases consisting of 100,000 inhabitants in two weeks.
Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins said:
It’s a resolution for which I’m not in a position . . . I don’t think society is in a position to allow more people to contribute to Latvia.
In an effort to curb the development of the spread of the virus, Lithuania has reintroduced the requirement to wear a face mask in public buildings and announced restrictions on public meetings.
“We felt comfortable and started traveling, joining, interacting more. As the virus was never fully exterminated, it began to spread,” Lithuanian Health Minister Aurelijus Veryga said.
In about 15 minutes, French Prime Minister Jean Castex is expected to announce new measures to combat the spread of the virus after a record infection.
The AFP has this summary:
Authorities are involved in the highest number of infections in France, even though the number of deaths and admissions for resuscitation is well below the peaks recorded in March and April.
However, there is no indication that Castex announces restrictions as serious as France’s two-month national blockade from March to May at the height of the epidemic.
The Ministry of Health said 9843 new coronavirus infections were recorded on Thursday, the number since large-scale testing began. The total death toll in France from a pandemic is 30,813.
Jean-Fran’ois Delfraissy, the head of the clinical council advising the government on the pandemic, said Wednesday that “difficult” decisions would possibly be needed at the meeting.
People at higher risk due to old age or fitness problems, in addition to diabetes, obesity and breathing problems, may want a protective “bubble” around them.
There is a danger of a “very immediate and exponential ascent” in some places, Delfraissy said, distinguishing the regions of the Cote d’Azur and Provence.
Castex himself is in a seven-day era of self-de-laying, having spent part of last weekend with Tour de France coach Christian Prudhomme, who tested the Covid-19.
Iraq recorded 4,254 new cases and 67 deaths from the virus. Despite the recent outbreak of cases, thousands of supporters of Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr accumulated in a mosque in east Baghdad for the first time since March (see above).
Switzerland has announced that others travelling from parts of France and Austria should be quarantined due to the accumulation of coronavirus cases there, but has exempted immediate border regions, AFP reports.
Switzerland considers that countries with more than 60 new instances of Covid-19 consisting of 100,000 inhabitants for 14 consecutive days are at risk and reserves the right to impose restrictions, adding 40 10 days.
Neighboring France surpassed this mark at the end of August, which raised the possibility that border closures would be imminent.
Swiss Health Minister Alain Berset said at a press conference that the government had to place nine of the thirteen French regions, adding Paris, on its risk list, as well as Vienna in neighbouring Austria.
“We’ve noticed a number of new infections in France, which are already higher than the March and April figures,” he said, noting that “this is a scenario that needs to be taken seriously. . . We’re looking to keep the pandemic under control. “
At the same time, he said, the government had sought a “pragmatic” technique and thus exempted the border regions of France and other neighbouring countries from the decree, which was due to enter into force on Monday.
Switzerland has noticed stable accumulation in cases in recent months. The country of 8. 5 million others has reported more than 46,000 cases of coronavirus and more than 1,700 deaths.
The daily number of instances exceeded 1000 in March, before falling to a figure in mid-June, and has since steadily increased to more than 500 on Friday for the first time since April.
A black man who will be tried for murder in the United States will have to wear a mask even if he believes he can only harm jurors who oppose him, according to an AP opinion.
Carine Reeves of New York argued that a mask would subject him to racial profiling and stereotypes through jurors who associate the mask with criminals.
Judicial regulations require everyone in a courtroom to wear a mask against the coronavirus pandemic.
Judge Harold Stewart II said jurors would perceive why Reeves and everyone else in the courtroom wear masks, and Reeves could simply be watched if he’s the only one who doesn’t have a mask, the ruling said.
“During this pandemic, the court cannot think of a greater state interest than taking steps to prevent the spread of the virus, for the health and protection of all,” the ruling wrote Thursday in its ruling.
Reeves is charged with murder in the 2017 murder of Sally Shaw, who shot himself in the head and left on the edge of a road in Cherryfield, eastern Maine. The trial, scheduled to begin later this month, is the first murder trial in Maine since the pandemic reduced court hours and delayed trials.
Reeeves’ attorney, Stephen Smith, had referred to North Carolina investigators who discovered that African-Americans are prone to racial discrimination just because they wear masks.
The Netherlands National Institute of Public Health has announced 1,270 new infections, the largest build-up since the last week of April.
Volkskrant’s online news page reports that there were only two days, on April 10 and 11, in which there was a higher daily build-up in the number of infections shown. He added that the number of new infections recorded this week is 6,573 compared to 4,077. Last week.