New York reopens its theaters, Europe lagging behind

By SudOuest.fr with AFP
Posted on 04/02/2021 6:33 a.m.
Updated 04/02/2021 at 6:34 am

Theaters and concert halls in the American cultural capital, closed since March 12, 2020, reopen their doors this Friday with a capacity limited to 100 people, while in Europe, the WHO deplores the slow pace of vaccination

New Yorkers rediscover the pleasure of live shows this Friday with the reopening of theaters made possible by a massive vaccination campaign, at a time when the WHO conversely denounces the slowness of immunization against Covid-19 in Europe where several countries have tightened their sanitary measures.

Theaters and concert halls in the American cultural capital, closed since March 12, 2020, reopen their doors, with a capacity limited to 100 people. President Joe Biden, however, called on the people of the United States to respect sanitary measures, in particular the wearing of masks, and asked sports clubs not to reopen stadiums to their full capacity.

“Unacceptable delay in Europe”

On the other side of the Atlantic, the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday attacked the slowness of vaccination in Europe, a delay it described as “unacceptable”.

“The regional situation is the most worrying that we have observed for several months”, lamented in a statement Hans Kluge, director for Europe of the World Health Organization. In this area, which includes some fifty countries including Russia and Central Asian states, the number of new deaths caused by Covid-19 exceeded 24,000 last week and is “rapidly” approaching one million, according to WHO.

On average, according to AFP, 0.31% of the population in the area receives a dose each day. If this rate is almost twice that of the rest of the world (0.18%), it is significantly lower than that of the United States / Canada (0.82%), champion in this field.

“The deployment of these vaccines is unacceptably slow,” lamented Hans Kluge, calling on Europe to “speed up the process by boosting production, reducing obstacles to vaccine administration and using the lower dose than we have in stock ”.

Strengthening measures

In Belgium, police used water cannons in Brussels on Thursday to disperse a large gathering in a park that had been banned by authorities due to the pandemic. The police received projectile jets as they intervened and at least one of them was injured. Several participants were arrested.

Faced with the third wave, the rest of Europe is stepping up measures to try to limit the spread of the virus, in particular concerning travel. Germany, where President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has just received his first dose of AstraZeneca vaccine, will strengthen controls around its land borders for the “next eight to 14 days”.

Finland, which intended to confine part of its population, however, had to review its copy after reservations about the legality of the project.

In addition, the British government announced Friday to release an envelope of around 400 million pounds (470 million euros) to support the reopening, after confinement, of 2,700 cultural organizations damaged by the coronavirus, including the festival of Glastonbury.

In Canada, Ontario will activate an “emergency brake” from Saturday for at least four weeks, Premier Doug Ford announced Thursday during a press briefing. Quebec, the second most affected province, has also established containment in several regions in addition to maintaining a curfew since early January.

Postponed events

In Asia, the situation is complicated in Japan where the government is expected to announce new regional restrictions on Thursday, especially in Osaka where regional authorities have asked that the Olympic flame avoid this metropolis to limit contamination. The Tokyo Olympics, delayed for a year due to the pandemic, are due to take place from July 23 to August 8.

In France, the Paris-Roubaix cycling race has been postponed from April 11 to October 3. The “queen of the classics” had already been postponed and then canceled in 2020. The ATP 500 in Rio, South America’s main tennis tournament, was canceled due to the worsening pandemic in Brazil. The Eurovision Song Contest, which takes place in Rotterdam, the Netherlands in May, should be able to accommodate a limited audience, however, as part of a test.

The Covid has killed more than 2.8 million people worldwide, according to a report established by AFP, especially in the United States and Brazil, which has just experienced its deadliest month.

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