Four million infected in four months, and above all more than 277,000 deaths: this is the heavy toll of Covid-19 disease since its appearance at the end of December in central China, according to the global count carried out by AFP from official sources Saturday evening. And these figures are undoubtedly much lower than reality.
New closure of bars and restaurants in South Korea
But the pandemic is not over. Sometimes unexpected upsurges lead to strong preventive measures, as shown by the closure until all further orders of all night establishments decreed Saturday evening by the Seoul authorities.
A young man infected dozens of people last weekend visiting establishments in a trendy district of the capital of South Korea, a country often cited as a model for its management of the health crisis.
This example will no doubt be pondered by some of the most affected European countries on the planet. The continuous ebb of the epidemic for several weeks makes it possible to start on Monday the end of a confinement at astronomical economic cost: this is the case of Italy, Spain and France.
Gradual relief in Europe
The reduction in the measures in force is very gradual, and differentiated. In France, the restrictions will be lifted more in the “green” departments than in the “red”. In Spain, the two main cities, Madrid and Barcelona, will stay away from the new phase of deconfinement.
Elsewhere on the Old Continent, some restrictions are relaxed on Monday in Belgium, Greece, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Ukraine, Albania, Denmark and the Netherlands, after Turkey on Sunday.
Fear of a second peak in the UK
The most bereaved European country, and the second in the world, remains the United Kingdom (at least 31,000 dead). Prime Minister Boris Johnson, himself a survivor of the Covid-19, is due to speak on Sunday.
But only slight relaxations are expected, such as the reopening of garden stores, this British hobby. In this scary time, “people are starting to realize the benefits for mental well-being” of this hobby, notes Jo Thompson, who has won several horticultural awards.
However, it is a question of introducing a compulsory quarantine of fourteen days for travelers entering the United Kingdom, which is causing concern for an airline sector already severely destabilized by the pandemic.
“We cannot risk a second peak” of contaminations, warned Johnson on Twitter on Saturday, calling on his compatriots to “continue” their efforts. “Second peak”, or second wave: because of the great contagiousness of the coronavirus and in the absence of any treatment and vaccine, it is the dread of all the countries which are unlocked, even carefully.
Reconfinement possible in Germany
For example, in Germany, a country relatively spared from the epidemic and decadent before the others, but where three cantons are currently exceeding the fixed limit of 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants. Chancellor Angela Merkel and the regions have agreed to a redeployment mechanism at the local level if the number of cases goes up again.
The normal resumption of activities thus remains very fragile. Germany was the first European country to give the green light to replay football, but Dynamo Dresden, a 2nd division team, has just been placed in quarantine after the detection of two cases of Covid-19 …
“It is absolutely” necessary “that people” apply the barrier gestures, that is to say that they move from confinement at home to confinement over oneself, to think that one must protect oneself, one must protect the others “, warns the virologist and ex-assistant director general of the WHO Marie-Paule Kieny, member of an expert committee which advises the French government.
Avoid going back
In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called for caution in the deconfinement to avoid a possible backsliding. He said he was worried about the situation in Montreal, an important center of the disease in Canada.
In the United States, the most affected country in the world (nearly 79,000 deaths and 1.3 million cases), the daily toll was established on Saturday around the bar of 1600 deaths for the second day in a row, which represents a certain decline after several days to more than 2000 dead.
President Donald Trump’s handling of the crisis was exhausted by his predecessor Barack Obama. He lamented an “absolute chaotic disaster” during a telephone conversation with former government officials, including Yahoo News.
Brazil, the new epicenter of the pandemic
In South America, Brazil has crossed the 10,000 death threshold, with 155,939 confirmed cases of contamination, according to the Ministry of Health. The scientific community estimates that the numbers could actually be 15 to 20 times higher.
At the high rate at which Covid-19 is advancing in this country of 210 million people, Brazil could become the new epicenter of the pandemic in June. Hence the prolonged confinement until the end of May decided by the State of Sao Paulo, which will imitate that of Rio de Janeiro on Monday.
This milestone of 10,000 deaths prompted Congress and the Supreme Court to declare three days of official mourning. Meanwhile, according to online media Metropoles, President Jair Bolsonaro was jetskiing on a lake in Brasilia.
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