Many European nations preparing to open their borders next month, trying to sketch out the parameters for a highly unusual summer tourist season
EUROPE reopened more widely on Monday, allowing people into the Acropolis in Athens, shops in Italy, museums in Belgium, golf courses in Ireland and beer gardens in Bavaria. China announced it will give $2 billion to the fight against the coronavirus.
As nations carved out a new normal amid the pandemic, Chinese President Xi Jinping told the World Health Organization’s annual meeting that the funds would be paid out over two years to help respond to Covid-19, which has already killed hundreds of thousands and devastated national economies. He didn’t specify where the Chinese funds would go.
Xi’s address to the World Health Assembly came amid sharp tensions between Beijing and US President Donald Trump, who has suspended US funding to the WHO and accused it of failing to stop the virus from spreading when it first surfaced in China. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar was representing the US at the meeting, which is being held online this year.
New infections and deaths have slowed considerably in Europe, where some countries started easing lockdowns a month ago. Many nations are preparing to open their borders next month, trying to sketch out the parameters for a highly unusual summer tourist season.
Germany’s foreign minister, who was discussing the options on Monday with colleagues from 10 largely southern European countries, cautioned that this year’s holidays will be like no other.
“Even if a summer vacation will be possible elsewhere in Europe, which I hope, one has to say that this vacation this year won’t be like the ones we know from the past,” Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told ZDF television. “The pandemic is still there and we must at least have safety precautions for the worst case that the figures get worse again.”
More than 4.7 million people worldwide have tested positive for the coronavirus and over 315 000 deaths have been reported, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Those figures are believed to understate the true dimensions of the pandemic because of limited testing, differences in counting the dead and concealment by some governments.
The US has reported almost 90 000 deaths and Europe has seen over 160 000 dead.
Greece reopened the Acropolis and other ancient sites, along with high schools, shopping malls and mainland travel. Paving stickers were used as markers to keep visitors apart. Tourists were local, for the country still has a 14-day quarantine for arrivals, and travel to Greek islands remains broadly restricted.
Authorities are keen to reopen Greece’s vital tourism sector, following a warning that it is likely to suffer the worst recession in the 27-nation European Union this year.
Greece’s beaches reopened over the weekend during a heatwave with strict social distancing, but buses from Athens to the coast were crowded.
In Belgium, more pupils returned to school, hairdressers began clipping locks again and museums and zoos opened their doors, all with strict reservation systems to avoid overcrowding. Hoping to make the most of the sunny weather, open-air markets started selling their spring fruit and vegetables.
Golf courses and garden stores reopened in Ireland but Health Minister Simon Harris said he’s still nervous because the virus hasn’t gone away.
If Ireland can get the next three weeks right, “we as a country will find a way to live safely alongside the virus,” Harris told RTE radio.
Churches in Italy and at the Vatican resumed public Masses. Guards in hazmat suits took the temperatures of the faithful entering St Peter’s Basilica, where Pope Francis celebrated an early morning Mass in a side chapel to commemorate the centenary of the birth of St John Paul II.
Across town, the Rev. Jose Maria Galvan snapped on latex gloves and a face mask before distributing Communion to a dozen parishioners at his Sant’Eugenio parish. “Before I became a priest I was a surgeon, so for me gloves are normal,” he joked.
Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa took his morning coffee at a Lisbon cafe and was having lunch at a restaurant with the speaker of parliament as officials encouraged people to support local businesses. Costa told reporters “we can’t return to our old life as long as the virus is around” but noted that the economy must come back to life.
In France, authorities were concerned after about 70 infections that popped up in the country’s schools since they started reopening last week. France reopened about 40 000 preschools and primary schools last week, with classes capped at 15 pupils.
The WHO has been drawn into a blame game between the US and China over the spread of the virus. Trump claims China mishandled the outbreak early on but China has defended its record. The EU and other countries have called for an independent evaluation of the WHO’s response to the pandemic “to review experience gained and lessons learned”.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed WHO efforts to combat the pandemic but added that countries should “work to improve procedures” at the agency and ensure its funding is sustainable.
“No country can solve this problem alone,” she said.
Xi said vaccine development and deployment in China will be made into a “global public good” and said China supported a review of the global response to the pandemic but only after it is brought under control.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the meeting it was a “false dichotomy” to assume that governments had to choose between saving their citizens or their economies.
“Unless we control the spread of the virus, the economy will never recover,” he warned.
China reported just seven new cases on Monday but kept tighter social distancing rules in parts of the northeastern province of Jilin after a cluster of cases of unknown origin turned up.
Moscow health officials said 77 people died of the virus in the Russian capital in the past 24 hours, the highest daily number so far. With over 290 000 infections, Russia is second only to the US in the number of cases but international health officials question Russia’s low official death toll of 2 722.
In India, people trickled outdoors and thin traffic returned to the roads on Monday after the government extended a nationwide lockdown to May 31 but eased many restrictions. Small shops and other businesses reopened in several states, including the capital, New Delhi. At the same time, India recorded its biggest single-day coronavirus surge with 5 242 new cases, along with 157 deaths.
In Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro greeted hundreds of supporters – and joined some in performing push-ups – who gathered to back his open-the-economy drive. Bolsonaro has played down the impact of the virus even as it has swept through Latin America’s most populous country, leaving over 16 000 dead.
– AP
