Coronavirus: nearly 700,000 dead worldwide, mandatory outdoor masks – All the news from Guadeloupe on the Internet

The milestone of 700,000 deaths from Covid-19 worldwide is about to be crossed and the acceleration of the pandemic is pushing certain countries to take containment measures, such as the Philippines, or to make the mask mandatory locally in the open air, like in France or the Netherlands.

In the famous Red Light District of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, the mask will be compulsory from Wednesday, just like in the shopping districts of Rotterdam.

In France, on the Place Saint-Pierre in Toulouse, haunt for students in the fourth city of the country, the mask will be compulsory between 12:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m. The same goes on the banks of the Garonne, as well as on the markets and second-hand goods. Or in the pedestrian tourist centers of several towns in the Alps, Annecy, Chamonix and Megève.

– “Fragile balance” –

Faced with a resurgence of cases of coronavirus, France has already made the mask mandatory in all closed public places. “The balance is fragile and we can switch at any time in a less controlled scenario, as in Spain for example”, warned Tuesday the scientific council, which guides the public authorities in the management of the crisis.

In Europe, the virus has killed more than 211,000 people according to an AFP report on Tuesday, out of a total of 694,507 dead worldwide since the WHO office in China reported the onset of the disease end December.

The United States remains at the top of the sad ranking of the countries most affected both in number of deaths and cases, with 155,471 deaths for more than 4.7 million recorded cases, according to the count of Johns Hopkins University.

They are followed by Brazil with nearly 95,000 dead, Mexico with more than 48,000 deaths, the United Kingdom with more than 46,000 dead and India with almost 39,000 people dead.

In the absence of a cure, the vaccine race continues with several countries engaged in this quest for the Grail. The World Health Organization, however, pleaded Tuesday for compliance with protocols.

“Any vaccine and any drug for this purpose must of course be subjected to all the different trials and tests before being approved for deployment,” said WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier.

The day before, Russia had aroused the concern of researchers by announcing that it would soon be able to produce “several million” doses in early 2021.

– “Reconfined at the airport” –

On Tuesday, millions of Filipinos returned to containment in the face of a worsening of the Covid-19 epidemic, the progression of which also seems inexorable in South America and the Caribbean, with more than five million cases declared.

More than 27 million people, or about a quarter of the population of the Philippines, are again forced to stay at home, after the cry of alarm from medical associations, who warned that the country was losing the battle against disease.

Since the beginning of June, when most of the country was out of containment, infections have quintupled, surpassing the 100,000 case mark.

The re-containment was only announced 24 hours in advance, leading many residents to find themselves stranded in Manila, with the stopping of public transport and in particular flights.

After losing her job, Gina Balos decided to leave everything behind and leave the Philippine capital with her family. To pay for plane tickets to Butuan in the south, she sold her furniture. “We have been stuck here since yesterday,” she told AFP.

– “Ghost town” –

Concern is also growing in Oceania where multiple restrictions have been put in place in Australia, in the face of the progression of the disease.

From midnight Wednesday, non-essential businesses and administrations will be closed in Melbourne, already under a nighttime curfew since Sunday evening.

A bookseller in Australia’s second largest city, Bill Morton says he lives in a “ghost town”. “People are quite demoralized,” he told AFP, describing “a very strange, almost worrying atmosphere.”

The pandemic also continues to weigh heavily on economies, especially the tourism sector. Norway on Monday announced restrictions on cruises along its coasts after dozens of cases appeared aboard a ship of the Hurtigruten company, which apologized and admitted its “mistakes”.

The cruise line Carnival Cruise Line, which had planned to resume operations this week after several months of suspension due to the pandemic, has finally had to postpone its first trips due to lack of green light from Italy.

And in the United States, the aid plan is slow to arrive, leaving the unemployed and businesses in the dark.

A hundred bosses of American multinationals like Walmart, Microsoft or Merck, as well as professional federations, nevertheless sent a letter to American parliamentarians on Monday.

They predict “a wave of permanent closures” if nothing is done by early September and “a domino effect on destroyed jobs”.

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