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Cases are increasing in the United States and Europe, and governments are being forced to take more drastic measures despite fears about the devastation inflicted on their economies.
FILE: Two people wearing protective masks walk down the street during the COVID-19 pandemic on April 21, 2020 in New York City. Image: AFP.
NEW YORK – New York bars and restaurants will close early Friday due to new restrictions designed to slow the rise in virus infections as the number of daily deaths worldwide surpassed 10,000 for the first time since the pandemic.
Cases are increasing in the United States and Europe, and governments are being forced to take more drastic measures despite fears about the devastation inflicted on their economies.
Across the globe, the disease has claimed nearly 1.3 million lives and infected about 53 million people since it first appeared in China in December.
In the United States, the country hardest hit by COVID-19, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo has ordered all establishments licensed to sell alcohol to close at 10 p.m. to help prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed. .
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he was willing to follow the example of other major U.S. cities and switch schools to online-only teaching because the daily infection rate was approaching three percent. .
But it’s even higher in other cities, and parts of the United States and Europe are now seeing more new virus cases than they did at the height of the first wave in March.
Tiny Lithuania claimed the unwanted title of becoming the fastest-moving pandemic nation with a 79% increase in infections over the past week. The number of cases also increased by 44% in Brazil, which is much larger, and by 58% in Japan.
‘NO MORE BEDS’
An AFP tally showed that the number of daily deaths worldwide from the disease dwarfed 10,000 on Friday, while infections in the United States remained above 125,000 a day.
The troubling trends forced Illinois Governor JB Pritzker to warn that he might have to issue stay-at-home orders for Chicago and the rest of the state if people continued to gather in public.
“With every fiber of my being I don’t want us to get there,” Pritzker said. “But right now it looks like we’re headed.
Chicago has issued a non-mandatory stay-at-home notice because its hospitals serving the poorest communities are filling to the limit.
Hospitals are also treating more patients in France than during the first peak, while Italy has seen the virus descend into its less developed south, largely saved when the virus collapsed from China earlier in the year.
“We hardly have any more beds available,” said Rodolfo Punzi, a doctor at the Naples hospital.
‘COVERED FATIGUE’
The latest wave of restrictions comes with lawmakers concerned about how they can persuade people who had only returned to some sort of normal life a few months ago to lose certain freedoms once again.
“COVID fatigue is definitely starting,” Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said after imposing a nightly curfew Thursday in his city outside New York.
An Ifop survey in France showed that 60% of respondents admitted to breaking the rules at least once by making up a false excuse to go out or meet family and friends.
Governments are also concerned about how long the restrictions can last without devastating economies that had only just begun to revive.
Capital Economics noted that French President Emmanuel Macron had vowed last month to lift restrictions once new daily infection figures drop from the current 30,000-40,000 to just 5,000.
“On that basis, if cases fall at the same rate now, the French blockade could last for more than two months,” the consultancy said in a research note.
SANTA TRAVEL CLAUSE
However, the news is not all doom and gloom.
Some economists believe that the world is slowly learning to work from home and that the impact of the new restrictions will not be as severe in many industries this time.
And US government scientist Anthony Fauci issued a suggestive suggestion Thursday that another vaccine is “literally about to be announced.”
US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech announced Monday that their vaccine had been shown to be 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 infections in phase 3 trials involving more than 40,000 people.
“The cavalry is coming, but don’t put down your weapons,” Fauci said in a video link conference Thursday.
Most believe he was referring to Moderna, an American biotech company focused on the same mRNA research as Pfizer and BioNTech.
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said Friday that he was encouraged by the rapid progress towards a vaccine.
But he added: “We must apply the same urgency and innovation to ensure that all countries benefit from this scientific achievement.”
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte tried to lighten spirits by promising that Christmas will not be canceled even if Europe’s borders are closed.
“Santa Claus assured me that he already has an international travel certificate,” Conte wrote on Facebook.
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