The Greek fitness government recorded the largest number of new instances since 22 April; one death every 15 seconds international as instances increase
The French government has been criticized for its policy of losing Covid-19, as queues erupted at some control centers in Paris and in places across the country amid an increase in infections.
A federation of leading labs said an abrupt July 25 decree to drop tests and without a prescription increased tension at a time when many members are going on vacation. Political parties at war have ridiculed a politics in disarray.
“The evidence is useless. You have to be the target,” Didier Pittet, an epidemiologist who heads a government-appointed working group to monitor Covid-19 tampering, told Europe 1 radio.
France, like many of its European neighbours, is witnessing a proliferation of new coronavirus groups.
The number of coronavirus patients in intensive care rose for a second straight day on Tuesday, reversing a 16-week downward trend. The disease has killed more than 30,000 people in France.
Lately, France is testing another 576,000 people a week, Reuters was told by a spokesman for the ministry of fitness on Wednesday, up from 200,000 when President Emmanuel Macron began to ease one of Europe’s strictest locks.
Health Minister Olivier Véran said over the weekend that the strategy works. “The virus is no longer harassing us, we are tracking it,” he told Le Parisien. The ministry spokesman declared “localized problems” but insisted that France had selected the right strategy.
But Lionel Barrand, who runs the National Union of Young Biologists, said the open check strategy like looking for a needle in a haystack and feeding the labs.
“The government threw sand in our wheels. It sent a lot of people to labs without prior warning,” Barrand told Reuters.
Covid-19 cases in Gambia, the smallest country in continental Africa, increased by more than 60% last week to a total of approximately 800, according to the knowledge of the Ministry of Fitness on Wednesday.
Authorities attributed the rise to people relaxing their guard on protective measures that had so far kept Gambia’s case total the lowest in Africa. Testing has also increased in the country, where the number of deaths is 16.
“There is increased enforcement of mask-wearing and other measures across the country,” said a government spokesman, Ebrima Sankareh.
Gambia will increase police, paramilitary, marine and immigration presence on its border as scores of Senegalese return from celebrating Eid al-Adha at home, he added. Senegal has recorded more than 10,400 cases.
The Gambian health ministry said six people who were confirmed cases were still at large, while two other positive cases had fled from a treatment centre in the capital.
On Sunday the government said three cabinet ministers had tested positive for Covid-19, and the health minister Ahmadou Lamin Samateh is in self-isolation.
The vice-president, Isatou Touray, tested positive on 29 July, leading the president, Adama Barrow, to enter self-isolation. The government said on Tuesday that the president had tested negative.
Thai police have summoned five organizers of student protests opposed to the government, violating an emergency decree opposed to coronaviruses that prohibits giant gatherings.
Among those called for questioning was Anon Nampa, a human rights lawyer, who on Monday had demanded reforms of the country’s powerful monarchy, a highly sensitive topic.
Police told Reuters that Nampa, 35, had been called up at a previous demonstration in July outdoors at army headquarters.
That demonstration was among a series of near-daily, student-led rallies around Thailand since mid-July that have demanded the resignation of the prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, and amendments to a military-drafted constitution that critics say maintains army influence over the political system.
The five organisers were “summoned for questioning and to hear the charge of breaching the emergency decree,” police lieutenant colonel Athich Donnanchai, the deputy director of Nanglerng police, told Reuters.
Asked about his summons, Anon said in a text message that the decree was “a law to gag and stop activism”.
Last month the government said the emergency decree in place since March would only be used as a measure against the coronavirus, and from August onwards would not be used to prevent political rallies.
Six protest leaders or political activists in two different provinces were summoned last month for breaching the emergency decree, among other alleged offences.
Portugal’s Azores Islands, 1,400km from the Portuguese coast, breached the national constitution by forcing air passengers to quarantine for 14 days, the country’s constitutional court has ruled.
The court said authorities on the islands had treated people as if they were serving a short prison sentence by confining them to hotels regardless of whether they had symptoms.
“The strength to legislate on rights, freedom and promises rests with the parliament or the [national] government, and on those two sovereign bodies,” the court said.
The regional government of the Azores had in March that all arriving air passengers deserve to be confined for two weeks in a hotel.
First, the government paid for the hotel, but others who arrived from May 8 were informed that they had to pay for their own stay.
The Constitutional Court’s decision, issued on July 30 and made public on Wednesday, came here after a guy presented a legal challenge for having to quarantine him for two weeks in a hotel on Sao Miguel, the island of the Azores.
A court decree ruled that the man, who had a circle of relatives in Sao Miguel, had been disadvantaged from his liberty and ordered the government to release him immediately.
Court documents imply that the man’s food was sent to his room 3 times a day, that he could not see his circle of family or friends, and that he himself had to leave his room blank.
Most British tourists would cancel the holiday if they had to wear a mask in public during a trip, according to a YouGov poll published this week. It revealed that two-thirds of other people (65%) would be cancelled if the mask were mandatory at any time, 43% would be cancelled if only mandatory inside, while 70% would leave the holiday if they had to quarantine them on their return.
The tourism industry continues to face cancellations and layoffs after Spain was removed from the UK government’s aisle list on 26 July. The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) predicted 3 million losses of tasks in the UK tourism sector, with “uncoordinated” restrictions deterring users.
The survey also revealed that 93% would be canceled if quarantine is required upon arrival at their holiday destination. Rules on quarantine and mask measures vary from country to country and would possibly replace without notice, as spikes in some spaces lead to the restoration of restrictions and protective measures.
You can read my colleague Antonia Wilson complete here:
Switzerland has the last country to impose strict quarantine on travellers from Spain to stop the spread of coronavirus.
The 10-day quarantine era does not apply to other people arriving from the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands, who have had fewer infections than mainland Spain.
The move will be taken from Saturday, Patrick Mathys, head of crisis control at the Federal Office of Public Health, said at a briefing in Bern on Wednesday.
So far, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Norway have imposed quarantine measures on lers arriving from Spain. Meanwhile, there are warnings for Spain in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Belgium, Finland and Poland.
New restrictions have been imposed on the city of Aberdeen in Scotland after an epidemic. According to these measures, bars and restaurants were ordered to close and asked to stay away.
“We are at a level in this pandemic where excessive and, in my opinion, reasonable caution is needed,” Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon said at a press convention after an assembly with officials.
Sturgeon advised Aberdeen residents against travelling other than for work or education, and said people should not visit other households. Hospitality venues in Aberdeen will be required to close by 5pm on Wednesday. There is more detail in the UK coronavirus live blog.
The Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has blamed “complacency” for the country’s “significant rise” in coronavirus cases in recent days.
In a week noticed containing the spread of transmission, the center-right leader echoed the growing fear of infectious disease experts over a strong buildup of infections. Greek fitness authorities recorded 121 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, the highest since 22 April.
In comments made at the start of a teleconference call with health officials handling the response to the pandemic – and before a mini cabinet reshuffle – Mitsotakis appealed to what is seen as the Greeks’ particular sense of honour and pride, saying only 10% of cases had been traced to people entering the country.
“In recent days we have seen a significant rise in positive cases which essentially differs, however, from the first wave of the pandemic, and that, naturally, is something that troubles and worries us,” he said. “It must be said that the increase in cases is due mainly to the noted relaxation towards compliance measures within our country in July. And for that I believe we all bear a responsibility. Just 10% of cases are imported; most cases right now are domestic.”
The government has continually warned that it will reintroduce restrictions, adding local blockades if necessary. Facial blankets have become mandatory in enclosed spaces, and officials said the mask should be worn on outdoor shuttle decks as the country prepares for a mass exodus that is expected to occur before August 15, the date of a primary devoted birthday party on the Orthodox calendar.
Mitsotakis, who has only intermittently addressed Greeks on the issue of coronavirus, deferring at the height of the initial lockdown to scientists instead, urged citizens not to let down their guard, saying masks should be seen as “a constant companion”. He said face coverings must be donned not only in closed spaces but also outside in circumstances where it is impossible to maintain social distancing. “The mask should now become a constant companion, like our keys, our glasses, our mobile phone,” he added, before calling on Greeks to reject conspiracy theories doing the rounds debunking the efficacy of face coverings and other precautionary measures.
The fort, notable among young people in recent weeks, raised the total number of cases to 4,855, and epidemiologists described the coming days as a decisive solution to the country’s continued ability to keep the virus under control. A total of 209 other people have so far died from Covid-19-related diseases in Greece. Large social gatherings, adding devout holidays, weddings and baptisms, have been linked to the sudden accumulation of infection rates.
Vietnam reported 41 additional instances of coronavirus, bringing the total number of instances in the country to 713, with 8 deaths.
Still one of the new infections is similar to danang’s tourist hotspot, where the first locally transmitted coronavirus case in more than 3 months was detected on July 25. Earlier in Wednesday, Vietnam’s Ministry of Health reported two more new cases of coronavirus.
Since the virus resurfaced in Danang, 264 cases have been reported, while the country’s 8 coronavirus-related deaths have occurred in the city.
Infections have since been found in at least 10 other locations in Vietnam.
The effects of a subject’s test suspected of being the first case of coronavirus in North Korea were inconclusive, however, the government has quarantined more than 3,635 number one and secondary contacts, according to a World Health Organization official.
On 26 July, the country said it had declared a state of emergency and locked down the border city of Kaesong after a person who defected to South Korea three years ago returned across the fortified border with what state media said were symptoms of Covid-19.
At the time, state media were unclear over whether the man had been tested, saying an “uncertain result was made from several medical checkups”. But the leader, Kim Jong-un, declared that “the vicious virus could be said to have entered the country”.
If confirmed, the case would have been the first officially identified through The North Korean authorities, since then state media have continued to say that no cases have been reported.
“The user verified Covid-19, but the verification effects were inconclusive,” Dr Edwin Salvador, WHO’s representative for North Korea, told Reuters on Wednesday.
Up to 64 first contacts and 3,571 secondary contacts of the suspected case were known and quarantined at government premises during a 40-day era, Salvador said. Kaesong is still locked and locked and doctors continue to monitor the city, he said.
Despite the absence of cases shown, North Korea imposed a blockade and conducted a search for contracts, he added.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex said the country’s wine sector, which has faced “major difficulties” due to the pandemic, will get another 250 million euros ($295 million) in state support.
He announced the announcement of a stopover in the vineyards of Menetou-Salon and Sancerre at the Cher branch in the Central-Val de Loire region. Previously, Castex had tweeted that state aid “must continue and intensify” to save the wine industry from collapse.