More than six million people have been infected with the new coronavirus around the world, with a strong expansion in Brazil, which has become the fourth country most mourned by the pandemic which continues to slow down the world economy significantly.
Latin America has become the main breeding ground for the disease, and Brazil rose to fourth place on Saturday in terms of deaths related to Covid-19. According to the Ministry of Health, 28,834 people died from the disease that appeared in China in December, a toll which places it behind the United States (103,758 dead), the United Kingdom (38,376) and Italy (33,340) and before France (28.711).
And 465,166 people were infected there.
Faced with these figures – which experts consider largely undervalued -, the call of extreme right president Jair Bolsonaro for a resumption of the football championships has created controversy.
Footballers are young and sporty
“As footballers are young and athletic, the risk of death if they catch the virus is infinitely reduced“, he declared, faithful to his speech minimizing the pandemic, in the name of preserving the economy.
In the neighboring Peruvian, the second most affected Latin American country, more than 155,000 cases have been confirmed and 4,371 have died.
In Bolivia, four of the nine regions of the country, including Santa Cruz de la Sierra, the most affected, announced Saturday that they were going to extend the measures of containment, against the decisions of the central government.
Ecuadorian Vice President Otto Sonnenholzner has announced that the Galapagos Islands, a natural heritage of humanity, will reopen to tourism from July 1.
“We can already start thinking about the future, reactivation, that the Galapagos will soon become the first safe tourist destination in terms of health“, did he declare.
Donald Trump stuns
While the Covid-19 has killed more than 366,000 people worldwide, President Donald Trump’s decision to permanently cut food to the World Health Organization (WHO), which he accuses of complacency towards China, caused astonishment.
The European Union asked him on Saturday to reconsider his decision. “Global cooperation and solidarity through multilateral efforts are the only effective and viable means of winning this battle facing the world“, she said.
Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet, has denounced a decision “crazy and terrifying“, and accused the United States government of”play (r) thug in full humanitarian emergency“.
Donald Trump announced last month that he would suspend the United States’ financial contribution to the WHO budget, of which it was the main funder, before announcing Friday that it was severing all ties with the UN agency.
Europe pursues deconfinement
As the health situation in Europe improves, restrictions continue to be lifted there.
Italy reopened to the public on Saturday the Tower of Pisa, one of the most famous symbols of the tourist attraction of the country.
In France, the population has been able to reconnect with its parks and gardens after more than two months of closure.
In Spain, football championship clubs will be able to resume collective training on Monday “total“, the last stage before the restart of the competition on June 11.
►►► Read also: Coronavirus in Belgium this Sunday, May 31: 40 new hospitalizations and 195 new cases in the last 24 hours
Spain could allow the return of German, French or Scandinavian tourists from the second half of June as part of a pilot project in the Balearic and Canary archipelagos.
However in the United Kingdom, many experts and members of the opposition judge “premature“the government’s decision to move to the next phase of deconfinement on Monday.
“I think it’s risky (…) because we still have a large number of cases in the country“said John Edmunds, a member of the scientific committee advising the government, noting that”England alone experiences nearly 8,000 new infections a day“.
India relaxes containment
Anxious like other countries to revive its economic machine, India also announced a relaxation of containment on Saturday despite a new daily record of contamination. As of June 8, religious buildings, hotels, restaurants and shopping centers may reopen.
Indian GDP experienced the slowest growth in the first quarter in 20 years.
The economic damage caused by the pandemic prompted Chile and Peru to request credit lines over two years from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a total of almost $ 35 billion.
Italy’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell 5.3% in the first quarter compared to the previous one, as did that of France, which is entering a recession.
The Canadian economy contracted 8.2% year-on-year in the first quarter, the sharpest drop since early 2009.
In Thailand, millions of people who lived odd jobs before the health crisis find themselves without income.
“Without food donations, I will have to fight even more for my family to survive“deplores Thanapat Noidee, who before the crisis was a motorcycle taxi and his delivery wife in Bangkok, almost closed for two months.
Everything will be different
Pope Francis warned that “everything will be different“after the global pandemic of the new coronavirus, from which humanity will emerge”better or worse“, in a message on Saturday evening, calling for a”fairer and more equitable society“.
In Jerusalem, the Esplanade des Mosques, the third holiest site in Islam, reopened its doors early Sunday morning after more than two months of closure due to the pandemic.
At dawn, the first faithful, their faces covered with sanitary masks, were able to enter the precincts of the Esplanade located in the old city of Jerusalem, before the first prayer of the day.
–
