x

Politics

Virus Resurgence Forces Countries to Reimpose Restrictions

PROMACHONAS, Greece — Countries around the world are reimposing lockdowns and implementing new health checks at their borders in an effort to curb a resurgence of the coronavirus before it spins even further out of control.

Starting Wednesday, all travelers arriving in Greece from a land border with Bulgaria were required to carry negative coronavirus test results issued in the previous 72 hours and translated into English. The new rules, which follow an increase in tourism-related COVID-19 cases, triggered an immediate drop in arrivals compared to recent days.

Residents of Australia's second-largest city, Melbourne, were warned on Wednesday to comply with lockdown regulations or face tougher restrictions. Melbourne's 5 million people and part of the city's semi-rural surroundings are a week into a new, six-week lockdown to contain a new outbreak there.

"The time for warnings, the time for cutting people slack, is over," Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews said. "Where we are is in a very serious and deadly position."

The developments come with more than 13 million cases of coronavirus cases confirmed worldwide, and with over 578,000 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

The actual numbers are thought to be far higher due to a number of reasons including limited testing.

In Serbia, which has been hit hard by a spike in infections and anti-government protests, a government crisis team expanded a ban on gatherings of more than 10 people from Belgrade to encompass the entire country. Masks were also made mandatory in public spaces where there is no opportunity for 1.5 meters (around five feet) of distancing, such as in lines to enter shops and bus stations.

Renewed restrictions took effect in Hong Kong on Wednesday, with public gatherings limited to four people, restaurants restricted to takeout after 6 p.m., and a one-week closure for gyms, karaoke bars, and selected other businesses. Masks were mandated on public transit for the first time, with the non-compliant being fined.

After a surge in daily infections beginning last month, Israel moved last week to reimpose restrictions, closing events spaces, live show venues, bars and clubs. It has imposed lockdowns on areas with high infection rates, which in some cases sparked protests from residents. 

Officials warn that if case numbers don't come down in the coming days, Israel will have no choice but to lock the entire country down again, as it did in the spring.

"I don't see what other tools we have aside from a lockdown," Israeli Health Minister Yuli Edelstein told the Israeli news site Ynet. "Unless there is a miracle."

South Africa, Africa's most developed country, is already showing signs of being overwhelmed by the pandemic — an ominous outlook for the rest of the continent of 1.3 billion people. 

A ban on alcohol sales and a night curfew have been reimposed this week to reduce the volume of trauma patients to hospitals that are struggling to cope with an influx of COVID-19 patients.

Alcohol-related emergencies at hospitals dropped by nearly 60% when South Africa prohibited the sales of liquor in April and May. When that restriction was lifted in June, hospitals saw an immediate return to previous levels of trauma cases, especially on weekends, according to statistics from Health Minister Zwelini Mkhize.

One result was more economic pain in a country which already has a high unemployment rate of 30%.

"This return to the booze ban is causing havoc to the restaurant business, and it's causing people to lose jobs," said Gerald Elliot, owner of a popular Johannesburg restaurant, Ba Pita, which he said closed as a result of the restrictions, with a loss of 28 jobs. "You can look down our street and see several restaurants that are shut. It looks like they are closed permanently."

In Spain, authorities in the northeastern Catalonia region made fresh attempts to stem the spread of new coronavirus outbreaks as health experts warned that more and better contact tracing is needed.

Since midnight Tuesday, 160,000 residents in and around the city of Lleida were forbidden to leave their homes unless it's properly justified. The area is closed off, with police checkpoints outside every municipality. Bars and restaurants are only open for takeout or delivery.

In Hospitalet de Llobregat, a densely populated town on the outskirts of the regional capital, Barcelona, dozens of people lined up Tuesday at a local health center to be tested for the virus, as infections have shot up from a few dozen to more than 200 in just over three days. 

Starting Wednesday, three neighborhoods are seeing more restrictions, including limits to the number of customers in shops and restaurants, while authorities are strongly urging people not to socialize.

Authorities in the English town of Blackburn also imposed new restrictions on social mingling amid what they say is a "rising tide" of new coronavirus cases.

Director of Public Health Dominic Harrison said that if infection numbers didn't fall by July 27, officials would begin to reimpose lockdown measures such as the closing of shops and other businesses.

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said Wednesday that the spread of the infections in the Japanese capital have escalated to levels tantamount to "issuing an alarm" and requested that residents and business owners step up their preventive measures.

However, even as new restrictions are imposed, steps were being taken to help restore a sense of normalcy.

On Tuesday night, Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko announced reopening the border with Russia and resuming the transport connection between the two countries "in the coming days."

Travelers arriving in Russia starting Wednesday had to either provide coronavirus test results at the border or take a virus test within three days of arriving to the country. Those measures replace a mandatory two-week self-isolation for those arriving to Russia.

RELATED

ATHENS - The celebration of the New Democracy party's 50th anniversary was held at the party's historical headquarters on Rigillis Street in Athens, reaching its peak with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' address on Friday night.

herald

Top Stories

Columnists

A pregnant woman was driving in the HOV lane near Dallas.

General News

NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.

Video

Spider Lovers Scurry to Colorado Town in Search of Mating Tarantulas and Community

LA JUNTA, Colo. (AP) — Love is in the air on the Colorado plains — the kind that makes your heart beat a bit faster, quickens your step and makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

Relentless Israeli airstrikes pounded Beirut's southern suburbs overnight and closed off the main highway linking Lebanon with Syria, forcing fleeing civilians to cross the border by foot.

Obie Williams said he could hear babies crying and branches battering the windows when he spoke with his daughter on the phone last week as Hurricane Helene tore through her rural Georgia town.

BUTLER, Pa. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump plans to return Saturday to the site where a gunman tried to assassinate him in July, setting aside what are now near-constant worries for his physical safety in order to fulfill a promise — “really an obligation,” he said recently — to the people of Butler, Pennsylvania.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris is heading to North Carolina on Saturday as the state recovers from Hurricane Helene, arriving there one day after a visit by Republican Donald Trump, who is spreading false claims about the federal response to the disaster.

espa

Enter your email address to subscribe

Provide your email address to subscribe. For e.g. [email protected]

You may unsubscribe at any time using the link in our newsletter.