‘Don’t do silly things’: Europe tries to stop Easter travel

Some countries are already planning small first steps out of the shutdown. Austria aims to reopen small shops on Tuesday.

Spain, with more than 16,300 dead, is preparing to start rolling back the strictest of its measures Monday, when authorities will allow workers in some nonessential industries to return to factories and construction sites after a nearly complete two-week stoppage.

Health Minister Salvador Illa said the government will distribute reusable masks at subway stations and other public transportation hubs.

“We think that with these measures we will prevent a jump in infections,” Illa said.

Italy continued to include all nonessential manufacturing in an extension of its national lockdown until May 3. But Premier Giuseppe Conte held out hope that some industry could re-open earlier if conditions permit.

Arcuri said that the exit from the lockdown will include increased virus testing, the deployment of a voluntary contact-tracing app and mandatory blood tests as Italy seeks to set up a system of `’immunity passports.”

German officials are set to consider on Wednesday how to proceed after several weeks of restrictions on public life. Officials have sounded a cautious note, pointing to the risk of undoing the gains the country has made.

“A second shutdown would be hard to cope with, economically and socially,” Winfried Kretschmann, the governor of Baden-Wuerttemberg state, told the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

India extended its lockdown of the nation of 1.3 billion people by two more weeks.

But Iran reopened government offices and businesses outside the capital after a brief nationwide lockdown to help contain the worst outbreak in the Middle East. Businesses in Tehran will be allowed to reopen next weekend.

Meanwhile, in Africa, where infections are on the rise, there is fear that the poor health care system and a lack of help from developed nations facing their own crisis could lead the virus to spread unchecked.

In Congo, corruption has left the the population largely impoverished despite mineral wealth, and mistrust of authority is so entrenched that health workers have been killed during an Ebola outbreak that has not yet been fully defeated.

Worldwide, confirmed infections rose above 1.7 million, with over 100,000 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Close to 400,000 people have recovered.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for others, especially older adults and people with health problems, it can cause severe symptoms like pneumonia.

Britain on Saturday reported 917 more deaths, down from the peak of 980 recorded a day earlier. The country’s overall death toll neared 10,000. At the same time, data suggest that the number of hospital admissions in Britain is levelling off.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the first major world leader confirmed to have COVID-19, continued to recover at a London hospital, where he was able to take short walks between periods of rest, according to his office.

In China, where the pandemic began in December, the number of new daily cases has declined dramatically, allowing the ruling Communist Party to reopen factories and stores.

China also is the biggest producer of surgical masks and other medical products and has increased output following the outbreak, but there have been complaints that shoddy or substandard goods are being sold abroad. Chinese regulators said that ventilators, masks and other supplies will now be subject to quality inspections.

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today