Because of the corona pandemic, Pope Francis celebrates the traditional Christmas mass in private. This emerges from a verbal note sent by the Vatican State Secretariat to the ambassadors to the Holy See. To what extent believers can even take part in the Christmas Eve service was initially unclear.
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Already at Easter, in view of the Corona crisis, the Pope celebrated the services otherwise attended by tens of thousands with only a few clergy, religious women and Vatican employees. Francis gave the blessing “Urbi et orbi” in the empty St. Peter’s Basilica. Usually the Pope also gives a speech on Christmas Day from the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica and donates the blessing “for the city and the world”.
Belgium: Doctors and nurses work despite corona infection
Dozens of doctors and nurses in the completely overloaded clinics in the Belgian province of Liège are on duty, according to trade unionists, despite being infected with the corona virus. “We have to choose between a bad and a very bad solution,” said Philippe Devos of the Belgian Federation of Medical Unions on Tuesday. The very bad solution is not to treat patients at all.
Devos himself runs the intensive care unit in a clinic in Liège in the French-speaking part of the country. The doctors and nurses who worked despite the corona infection were symptom-free, he said. There are certainly more than 100 infected nurses on duty in the region’s hospitals. Devos emphasized that they only care for infected patients. They also wore the best masks available. There is a separate room for them to eat. All conditions are such that the risk of infection is very low.
According to the EU epidemic authority (ECDC), Belgium is the country with the most corona infections within 14 days per 100,000 inhabitants – this value was 1390.9 on Tuesday.
The hospitals in the province of Liège in particular, but also in other regions, are overloaded. Most recently, patients were transferred to other Belgian regions and, in some cases, across the German border to Aachen. Last week, according to the authorities, an average of 500 infected people came to the hospital every day – an increase of 88 percent compared to the week before.
Regarding the situation in the hospitals in the Liège province, Devos said: “We have run out of space in the intensive care units, we have no more space outside the intensive care units.” Patients coming to the emergency room would be stabilized and then taken to hospitals in Flanders. This will be done until all hospital beds in Belgium are occupied. Then the quality of care will be reduced – and, for example, fewer nurses will be used per patient. The number of infected people per 100,000 inhabitants in Liège was 2610 in the past two weeks.
Again violence during protests in Italy
Protests against the strict measures to contain the coronavirus in Italy have turned into violence in some cases. In Turin, Milan and other cities, people took to the streets on Monday evening to protest against the early closure of restaurants and cafes, as well as cinemas, gyms and other facilities. Shop windows were destroyed and smoke bombs detonated.
In the Piazza Castello in Turin, bottles were also thrown at the police, as reported by the TV station RAI. A photographer was injured by a bottle. Police used tear gas on protesters. Around 300 taxis had previously lined up in the same square, the drivers of which wanted to draw attention to their economic losses due to the extensive elimination of tourism and workers in the city centers. Violent football fans known as ultras were responsible for the outbreak of violence in Turin, according to LaPresse news agency. Five were arrested. Police also used tear gas against demonstrators in Milan.
The Italian government stipulated on Sunday that bars, cafes and restaurants must close at 6 p.m. in the next 30 days. The background is a renewed increase in the coronavirus numbers. On Saturday, Italy had registered a total of more than half a million infections since the pandemic began. Since most Italians don’t have dinner before 7:30 p.m. or later, the arrangement is disastrous for restaurant owners. However, take-away and deliveries may also be available afterwards.
Virus paralyzes UN headquarters
Because at least five employees of a delegation tested positive for the corona virus, all personal meetings of various bodies at the United Nations headquarters in New York were canceled for Tuesday. This comes from an internal letter from the President of the UN General Assembly, Volkan Bozkır. Meetings would be suspended until the contact tracing was completed.
According to diplomatic circles, it is an outbreak in the UN representation of Niger. The African country is a member of the United Nations Security Council, in which Germany also sits. The most powerful UN body held the last meeting on Monday digitally as planned. Only on Tuesday should there be another face-to-face event.
Slovakia wants to have almost the entire population tested
The government of Slovakia wants to have almost the entire population of the country tested for the corona virus on the next two weekends. Prime Minister Igor Matovič announced that the national Corona crisis team had approved the plan after a pilot phase had been successful over the weekend. The founder of the populist-conservative election platform “Ordinary People and Independent People” (OĽaNO) announced the plan just a week ago. From Friday to Sunday, four areas on the Polish border that were particularly badly affected by the pandemic were tested.
In the next two phases, all residents over ten years old in the rest of the country are to be subjected to a rapid antigen test within four days, on Saturdays and Sundays. The fact that the Fridays, which were also initially planned, were canceled, is obviously related to a staff shortage that health experts had warned about. Health Minister Marek Krajčí said it was easier to find enough helpers on the two days off than on Friday.
On Sunday, Defense Minister Jaroslav Naď, who was responsible for the organization, did not rule out the possibility that the tests of almost five million people would have to be canceled due to a lack of staff. Matovič expected the project to be a model for all of Europe. Chancellor Angela Merkel also showed great interest in talking to him, reported the head of government.
WHO chief warns of overloading intensive care units in Europe too
In view of the rapidly increasing number of infections with the coronavirus, the head of the World Health Organization has before an overload of intensive care units, especially in Europe and North America warned. “Many countries in the northern hemisphere are currently seeing a worrying increase in cases and hospital admissions,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in Geneva. In some places, the intensive care units filled up quickly.
The WHO chief also vehemently contradicted a statement from the White House that the corona pandemic could not be controlled. Giving up on the containment of the virus is dangerous, warned Tedros. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows had said the day before that the US authorities could not control the coronavirus because it was “a contagious virus like the flu”. The WHO agrees with the US priority of protecting the most vulnerable from Covid-19. But stricter measures are needed to stop the virus, said Tedros. Both governments and citizens must do their part to contain the pandemic.
Tedros expressed understanding that many people felt a certain “pandemic fatigue”. The psychological and physical stress of working from home and the distance to friends and family are high. Still, people shouldn’t give up now. Above all, however, the health systems and the people who work for them must be protected. The WHO chief called on people to take every precaution to avoid contagion. This is the only way to avoid further lockdowns.
For the first time, France recorded more than 50,000 new infections
In France For the first time, more than 50,000 new corona infections were registered within 24 hours. The health authority reported 52,010 newly recorded infections on Sunday evening. There was thus another high within a day since the start of the large-scale corona tests in France.
The corona situation has been worsening dramatically in the country with 67 million inhabitants for weeks. The authorities reported new highs several times in the past week alone. On Friday evening, the one million reported cases since the pandemic began. More than 34,700 people in the country have already died in connection with Covid 19 disease. About 17 percent of the corona tests are positive, according to Sunday. Since Saturday, the night curfew has been in effect for around two-thirds of the country’s residents in France. The curfew applies in 54 departments and the French overseas territory of French Polynesia. During the night, people are only allowed to go outside with a valid reason.
Also Italy recorded a new high. The number of new infections within one day exceeded the 20,000 mark for the first time at 21,273. Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 525,782 confirmed infections with the Sars-CoV-2 virus in the Mediterranean country. The death toll related to a corona infection rose by 128 to 37,338.
From this Monday on, restaurants and bars across the country will have to close for guests at 6 p.m. In addition, cinemas, theaters, fitness studios, swimming pools, ski resorts and concert halls are no longer allowed to open. The measures should initially apply until November 24th.
In addition, classes must be held online for at least 75 percent of high school students. The government of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte also strongly recommends refraining from receiving guests at home and from non-urgent travel.
In terms of population, the EU countries are small Czech Republic (10.7 million inhabitants) and Belgium (11.5 million inhabitants) hardest hit. According to the European disease authority ECDC, the number of infections per 100,000 inhabitants in the past 14 days was almost ten times higher than in Germany (83 million inhabitants). At the weekend, the Czech Republic reported highs of more than 15,000 infections in a single day, in Belgium the number for Tuesday last week was corrected to more than 18,000.
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