U.S.
New York, the largest city in U.S, forces its bars and restaurants to close at 10:00 p.m. from this friday to face the second wave of covid-19, which hits the country with unusual force and continues to wreak havoc in Europe as well.
The number of coronavirus patients hospitalized in the United States is the highest since the start of the pandemic, with more than 65,000 people, according to el Covid Tracking Project.
The virus has already caused 242,621 deaths in the country, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
In the absence of national slogans from the federal government of Donald Trump, local authorities begin to impose restrictions on their territories.
In New York State, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that all establishments authorized to sell alcohol, including bars and restaurants, will have to close at 10:00 p.m.
Some states and cities also began to encourage their residents to stay home.
This is the case of Chicago – the third most populous city in the United States – which asked its 2.7 million inhabitants to stay in their homes, except to go to work, school or some essential activities, a recommended but not coercive measure.
Each of us must step up and ‘Protect Chicago’ right now, or 2020 could go from bad to worse, “says a note on the city’s website.
More than 10,000 affected by the new coronavirus died in the last 24 hours in the world, according to an AFP count on Thursday. About half (4,961) of these deaths (10,010) were registered in Europe, 1,868 in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 1,330 in the United States.
At the beginning of the week there were encouraging news about development of a vaccine from the Pfizer and BioNTech laboratories, but that possible solution will not arrive in time to avoid tens of thousands more deaths.
The director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) called on Friday that any “scientific breakthrough” made in the race for the Covid-19 vaccine benefit all countries quickly.
Never in history has vaccine research progressed so fast, “Tedros Adhamon Ghebreyesus celebrated at the close of the agency’s annual meeting.” We must demonstrate the same speed and the same spirit of innovation to try to ensure that all countries benefit from this scientific breakthrough. “
The first vaccines are expected to be available perhaps by the end of the year in the United States, and in Europe they would do so in the first quarter of 2021, Andrea Ammon, director of the European Center for Disease Control (ECDC), told AFP.
Hotels for patients in Italy
Covid-19 has killed at least 1,294,539 people worldwide since the WHO office in China reported the appearance of the disease at the end of December, according to a count prepared this Friday at 1100 GMT by AFP from official sources.
At least 52,775,840 cases of infection have been diagnosed since the start of the pandemic, of which 33,959,160 are considered cured.
In Europe a sign of hope came from Germany, where the Robert Koch Institute, a health surveillance agency, spoke on Thursday of the “first signs” of improvement in the infection curve.
“The curve is flattening out,” said the center’s director, Lothar Wieler, while warning against any relaxation of citizen behavior.
But other countries continue with alarming figures and throughout the week announced new measures to try to contain the advance of the pandemic.
Greece, already confined since Saturday, has decreed an additional curfew, starting Friday between 9:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. Only travel for work or health reasons will be authorized.
Portugal on Thursday expanded the area affected by its sanitary restrictions. Slovenia banned nearly all gatherings for two weeks and Hungary imposed partial lockdown for at least 30 days on Wednesday.
In France, where a coronavirus patient is hospitalized “every 30 seconds,” the prime minister ruled out any relaxation of lockdown for at least another 15 days.
At the Parisian airport Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle an antigenic screening test center has been opened for passengers coming from countries classified as “red”, to whom France requests to provide a negative test to enter its territory.
In Italy, which exceeded the threshold of one million cases, the government reserved 15,000 hotel beds for people with Covid-19 throughout the country.
The Sheraton Parco de Medici in the south of Rome, with a swimming pool and located in the middle of a golf course, has made available 169 rooms for patients, 49 of them equipped with oxygen.
The UK, the hardest hit country in Europe, surpassed 50,000 deaths on Wednesday and Spain and France over 40,000.
On a planet where travel restrictions have multiplied, someone is exempt: Santa Claus wears a mask and can move around the world thanks to his travel permit, the Italian prime minister said on his Facebook page on Thursday, to the peace of mind of the children in their country who feared for Christmas presents.
And in Latin America, Chile authorized this Friday the entry of tourists through the Santiago airport, where they must present a negative PCR test and an affidavit, thus joining the growing group of countries in the region that have opened their air borders, such as Peru, Costa Rica, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil and Venezuela.
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