The health situation linked to the coronavirus epidemic continues to deteriorate around the world, particularly in France and Italy, prompting many capitals to toughen their systems in the hope of warding off the specter of a second wave likely to cause a new economic and social earthquake.
Hit hard in March by the epidemic that had put its hospital system to the test, Italy has been faced for several days with a clear recovery in the circulation of the virus, favored in particular by travel and summer activities of holidaymakers.
According to the latest official report published on Sunday, 1,210 new cases of coronavirus were identified in the country in the space of twenty-four hours. A third of the cases recorded in the Rome region are linked to stays in Sardinia.
Despite this sudden rise in the contagion curve, the Italian Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, wanted to be reassuring on Sunday, judging that the situation was under control and ruling out a general reconfinement of his country.
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At the local level, however, concerns are growing. The President of Campania (around Naples) thus suggested again limiting travel between regions by the start of the school year.
In Civitavecchia, a large port 70 km north of Rome, screening tests in “drive-in“have been set up for holidaymakers returning from Sardinia by ferry.
On the island, “there were a lot of people everywhere, and on the beach there were often crowds, especially among young people“, testifies Francesco Mazza, a 43-year-old video producer returning from San Teodoro.
Risky situation
On the other side of the Alps, in France, the situation is also deteriorating. More than 4,500 new cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in the past 24 hours, according to figures released on Sunday by Santé Publique France.
A total of 4,897 new positive diagnoses were recorded, compared to 3,602 on Saturday.
“We are in a risky situation“facing the Covid-19, warned the Minister of Health Olivier Véran in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche.”The risk“, he insisted,”is that, after gently removing the lid of the pan, the water boils again“.
As in Italy, however, a general reconfinement is not on the agenda, the authorities favoring at this stage territorialized measures and promising reinforced controls.
Checks like those carried out by the police on Saturday night in Paris on the sidelines of the broadcast of the Champions League final between PSG and Bayern Munich. According to the police headquarters, 274 people were fined for not wearing a mask, especially in a bar evacuated near the Champs-Elysées.
In total, since its appearance last December in China, the pandemic has killed at least 805,470 people around the world, according to an assessment established by AFP on Sunday from official sources.
The United States is the most bereaved country with 176,765 dead. Next come Brazil (114,250), Mexico (60,254), India (56,706) and the United Kingdom (41,423).
Traffic jams at the border
Faced with a rebound in the number of cases, restrictions have been increasing in recent weeks on all continents, from South Korea to Finland – where strict border measures come into force on Monday – via the capital of Paraguay.
As of Sunday, the approximately two million inhabitants of Asunción and its suburbs can no longer move freely from 5:00 a.m. (08:00 GMT) to 8:00 p.m. (23:00 GMT) as part of a “social quarantine“scheduled to last until September 6.
The reinstatement of certain measures is not without clashes and tensions. Strict health checks introduced over the weekend by Vienna on the Slovenian border have thus caused immense congestion and aroused the anger of the Slovenian police and the concern of Croatia.
More tragically, the arrival of the police to enforce the health curfew in force in Lima, the capital of Peru, led to a stampede in a nightclub, which resulted in the death of 13 people over the weekend. , eleven of whom were infected with the coronavirus.
In addition to this return of controls and restrictions, life will resume its normal course this Monday in Northern Ireland with the gradual reopening of schools, for the first time since March.
In Burma, respect for social distancing turns into a puzzle in the overcrowded camps where the Rohingyas are confined. During the past week, 48 cases of coronavirus have been identified in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State, or more than 10% of the total of some 400 cases recorded so far in Burma.
“If confinement is imposed for a long time, we will need help (…)“, explained a Rohingya, Kyaw Kyaw.
On the medical front, US President Donald Trump gave his green on Sunday to the transfusion of blood plasma from people cured of the coronavirus to hospitalized patients – a treatment whose effectiveness is however still debated.
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