Seoul on Sunday extended to the whole of South Korea the measures already in force in the capital region, closing beaches, restaurants, karaoke bars and museums and suspending sporting events behind closed doors.
South Korea, one of the first countries affected in the spring after China, reported 397 new cases of coronavirus on Sunday, the largest daily increase since early March. “The situation is very serious because we are on the verge of a national epidemic,” Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) director Jung Eun-kyeong said on Sunday. This country has so far succeeded in curbing the epidemic thanks to a very thorough strategy of testing and tracing infected people, without imposed confinement.
Fear of imported cases
In Europe, the returns from leave put on the alert countries which fear an outbreak of cases imported from abroad.
Thus, Austria established strict health controls on the Slovenian border on Saturday, which caused immense congestion: holidaymakers, especially Germans and Dutch, waited in some places until ten o’clock last night. Vienna invokes a constant increase in the number of contaminations on Austrian territory, a third of holidaymakers having tested positive for a month on their return from Croatia. Since Saturday, Austria has stopped every car from Slovenia to record the personal data of all passengers, even in transit, in order to be able to trace the contaminations.
Italy, the first European country affected in the spring, also fears a second wave: the Rome region has recorded in 24 hours a record number of new cases since the start of the pandemic in March, mostly linked to returns from holidays . People returning from Sardinia (south), an island spared by the first outbreak of the epidemic, but where the comings and goings of tourists and revelers have contributed to the spread of the virus. Italy is running drive-in tests for holidaymakers arriving from this island by ferry to Civitavecchia, a large port 70 km north of Rome. “On board the ferry, we were tight like sardines, they did not even reduce the capacities of the ships or increase their frequency”, regrets Francesco Mazza, a 43-year-old video producer, cursing the “Italian disorganization”.
In Germany too, the number of new contaminations has risen sharply in recent days, due to the massive return of German tourists who have spent their holidays in risk areas abroad, according to the authorities.
The epidemic “has never stopped … It was only controlled during confinement and then gradual deconfinement”. “The risk is that, after gently removing the lid of the pan, the water will boil again,” warned the French Minister of Health Olivier Véran.
Globally, the pandemic has killed at least 805,470 people and more than 23 million people have been infected in 196 countries and territories since the appearance of the virus in China in late December, according to an AFP count.
Latin America and the Caribbean are the most bereaved region with more than 257,469 dead, before Europe, then the United States. More than half of the deaths from Covid-19 on the planet have been recorded in four countries: the United States, Brazil, Mexico and India.
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