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President Emmanuel Macron has declared another blockade for France. The curfews are meant to contain the corona pandemic, which threatens to spiral out of control again, Macron said in a speech to the nation on Wednesday.
“The virus is spreading at a rate that even the most pessimistic predictions would not have predicted,” Macron said. France is in the same situation as the neighboring countries: “Invaded by a second wave that we know will be harder, more deadly than the first.” He announced a debate and vote in parliament for Thursday.
Macron said the massive increase in the number of infections made a “brutal stopping maneuver” inevitable. Over the weekend, France posted a new record of more than 50,000 new infections daily, on Wednesday night almost 36,000 new infections were reported in 24 hours. The death toll recently soared by more than 500 as authorities released numbers for nursing homes for the first time in four days. The government is particularly concerned about the situation in hospitals.
The new measures take effect on Friday and should apply until December 1. During this time, citizens can only leave their apartments to go shopping, see the doctor or for an hour to play sports or go for a walk. If possible, people should also work from home. Unlike the first closure in spring, most schools will remain open.
Association of cities and municipalities: Crown resolutions show “sense of proportion”
02.11 am: The Association of Cities and Municipalities welcomed the tightening of the crown’s requirements, but at the same time called for quick financial help for interested companies. The resolutions showed “a sense of proportion,” CEO Gerd Landsberg told the Funke media group newspapers. The country had been prevented from “putting itself into a kind of semi-coma”, “and it is fair to continue operating schools and kindergartens in particular.”
The financial aid announced by the government would have to be implemented quickly and without bureaucracy, especially for catering businesses, demanded Landsberg: Businesses must not give up, “that would be a devastating sign for life in our cities.
Post expects an annual record 1.8 billion packages
1:25 am: Due to the flood of packages resulting from the boom in online commerce in the run-up to Christmas, Deutsche Post mail carriers will also deliver packages at night. In order to safely cope with the large numbers of shipments in the Corona period for everyone, “we work with several waves during the day, so that our couriers will ring more frequently at night in the coming weeks,” he said. Tobias Meyer, Member of the Deutsche Post Board for the Postal and Parcel Industry, the “Funke Mediengruppe” newspapers (Thursday editions). Smaller packages must also be delivered by postmen.
Deutsche Post DHL expects a new package record this year due to increased online orders as a result of the corona pandemic. “For the full year we expect an increase of almost 15 percent compared to the previous year to about 1.8 billion packages,” Meyer said. In the run-up to Christmas, the number of letters and packages to be delivered daily corresponds to “the length of a freight train from Frankfurt am Main to Düsseldorf”. To cope with the rush during the holiday season, 10,000 new employees will be hired before the end of the year.
If you want to make sure your package reaches the recipient on time on Christmas Eve, you must deliver it before December 19 at 12 noon, Meyer explained. December 22 is the last deadline for letters and postcards.
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SPD chief sees Corona’s resolutions as “an encouraging sign”
00:30 am: SPD leader Norbert Walter-Borjans sees the crown resolutions of the federal and state governments as an “encouraging sign.” With earlier decisions there were troublesome profiling races and hard-to-understand mosaic solutions, Walter-Borjans told the dpa news agency on Wednesday. This time those responsible had given the signal: “Together we can defeat Corona.”
Now it’s about the citizens. “We all have to do our part to roll back the coronavirus and prevent a dramatic health emergency,” said the SPD leader. It is worth staying home. The blocking of leisure has a predictable end.
So far, more than 5000 corona cases Unitednorth Nations
12:20 am: At the United Nations, there have been more than 5,000 cases of corona worldwide since the pandemic began. At least 5,325 infections with the virus have been recorded so far, a UN spokesman in New York said Wednesday. So far, 64 people in UN service have died after being infected with the virus. So far, at least 130 cases have been registered at the UN headquarters in New York. The United Nations has tens of thousands of employees around the world, in addition to those employed and those involved in sub-organizations.
The UN headquarters in New York is currently paralyzed due to some corona infections. After at least five employees from a member state tested positive, all face-to-face meetings between various agencies at the East River site were initially canceled until the end of the week. The member country is currently working closely with UN medical staff, among other things to ensure follow-up of contacts, the UN spokesman said.
According to diplomatic circles, this is an outbreak in the representation of Niger at the UN. The African country is a member of the United Nations Security Council, in which Germany also participates.
Almost 4,000 new infections in Portugal: government crisis meeting
12:15 am: Portugal has reported a record of new coronavirus infections. Health authorities announced in Lisbon on Wednesday that 3,960 infections had been registered in the country with 10.3 million inhabitants in 24 hours. Due to the rapid increase in numbers, Prime Minister António Costa called a special meeting of his cabinet for Saturday. The socialist government announced that new measures to contain the pandemic will be discussed. The Secretary of State responsible for Health, António Lacerda Sales, said the situation was “critical.”
Madrid uses drones to verify crown rules in cemeteries on All Saints’ Day
00:10 am: Madrid authorities want to use drones to control compliance with crown regulations in the two largest cemeteries in the Spanish capital on All Saints’ Day. Due to the pandemic, the visitor capacity at cemeteries was cut in half, as the city council announced on Wednesday. Therefore, visitor groups can consist of a maximum of six people. These must comply with the distance rules.
“We cannot allow crowds to form inside or outside the cemeteries,” Madrid Mayor José Luiz Martínez-Almeida told reporters. In addition to the drones, up to 300 policemen will be deployed to cemeteries over three days starting October 30. That’s roughly 20 percent more than last year.
It is not the first time that Madrid police have used drones to monitor crown rules: when a nationwide lockdown was imposed in March, police used drone-mounted speakers to talk to people in parks and squares about the Report measurements.
“Big disappointment”: Dehoga is considering taking legal action against the confinement
00:05 am: The German Association of Hotels and Restaurants (Dehoga) is examining legal measures against the decision of the federal and state governments to contain the corona pandemic. The head of Dehoga of Saxony-Anhalt, Michael Schmidt, announced this in an interview with the German Press Agency. “It’s a huge disappointment, it’s really dramatic for us,” Schmidt said. “We are not driving the pandemic.” Only restaurant owners could complain. Dehoga CEO Ingrid Hartges said that night on ARD that members had already reported that they wanted to complain.
The 16 prime ministers had previously agreed with the federal government on a temporary shutdown. Among other things, this stipulates that in November, as in spring, restaurants can only sell food outside the home. Hotels can also accommodate business travelers. The regulations should take effect on Monday and will initially apply until the end of November. The affected companies will be compensated by the federal government and reimbursed up to 75 percent of their sales starting in November 2019.
That’s also only moderately optimistic for Schmidt, Dehoga’s country manager. “In the end, the emergency aid in spring came much later than previously thought.” With the new help, every day counts. The existential fears of spring would now return to the members of his association.
