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ONE MILLION PEOPLE in and around the Spanish capital are under new orders to “stay home” to contain another surge in coronavirus, as the death toll in the United States approached 200,000.
But unlike other nations that are tightening restrictions to combat the outbreaks, India has pushed ahead with its measures to revive its ailing economy, reopening the Taj Mahal and some schools, despite having the second highest number of cases in the world.
The restrictions in Madrid will last for two weeks from today, affecting people who live mainly in poorly-populated and densely populated neighborhoods who will only be allowed to travel for essential reasons such as work, medical assistance or taking children to the school.
Yesterday, people took to the streets in some of the affected districts to protest the new measures.
They carried banners that said “No to a lockdown by class” or “They are destroying our district and now they lock us up.”
“We think they are laughing a bit at us,” said nurse Bethania Pérez, as hundreds protested against the measure.
“We will still be able to go to work and go to other areas that are not closed, where we could increase infections and also remain vulnerable to infections in our own area.”
Authorities in Spain, one of the worst affected nations in the world, have insisted that the step is necessary because virus cases in those districts were much higher than the national average.
Global coronavirus infections are fast approaching 31 million, with more than 958,000 deaths.
‘We have to get used to it’
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has moved most of New Zealand to its lowest virus alert setting, saying the country was making progress towards eliminating Covid-19.
The Pacific nation has recorded just 25 deaths out of a population of five million and has been widely praised for its response to the virus.
In India, however, infections are increasing with tens of thousands of new infections being reported every day.
But with the economy reeling, the government has gradually eased what was once one of the world’s tightest lockdowns, despite warnings from some experts about the virus spreading across the vast nation of 1.3 billion people.
“So many people lost their jobs during the confinement. People have suffered a lot and it is time for the country to fully open up, ”said the 35-year-old Ayub Sheikh bank official, who was visiting the Taj Mahal with his wife and daughter.
“We are not afraid of the virus. If it has to infect us, it will … I don’t think it’s going away any time soon. We have to get used to it now. “
In the poorest and crisis-affected parts of the world, the pandemic has accumulated even more suffering.
In Iraq, tens of thousands of Shia Muslims participated in the annual Ashura mourning ceremonies despite the government urging citizens not to attend large gatherings.
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“Iraq has been through so much misery, from war to torture, imprisonment, forced emigration and now the coronavirus pandemic,” said Sheikh Hassan Dhakeri, a cleric in the sanctuary city of Karbala.
‘The pand-Emmys’
The United States continues to be the most affected country in the world, with more than 6.8 million cases and deaths close to 200,000.
The pandemic has unleashed great destruction in the world’s largest economy, with millions of people out of work and President Donald Trump facing intense criticism for his handling of the virus.
Trump has expressed confidence that a vaccine will be ready by October, a claim that his administration’s top health expert contradicts.
In the absence of a prophylactic, all public gatherings carry a serious risk of transmission.
That concern plagued America’s largest television awards show yesterday, as the Emmy Awards took place in a nearly empty venue in Los Angeles, with host Jimmy Kimmel calling them “the pand-Emmys.”
© – AFP 2020
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