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The new coronavirus has been found in mink on two farms in northern Greece, an official from the Ministry of Agriculture said.
The strain found in the mink had not mutated from that found in humans, the official said.
The breeder at one of the farms in the northern Kozani region also tested positive for the virus and the workers were being tested. The slaughter of the 2,500 minks on that farm was to begin shortly.
Denmark’s total stock of 17 million minks will be removed after a mutated coronavirus was found in mink farms there, and more than 15,000 minks in the United States have died from the new coronavirus since August.
Fur production is an important industry in Kozani and nearby Kastoria, where the second farm is located. Greece’s mink population is estimated at hundreds of thousands, and fur exports generate between € 60 million and € 70 million per year.
“This has dealt another blow to the 800 families living in the sector in the region,” said Dimitris Kosmidis, director of the Greek fur federation in Kozani.
Greece has seen the number of daily cases double in the last two weeks to almost 3,000 and the government faces accusations of “criminal negligence” by the opposition for its response to the crisis.
“The next few weeks will be extremely critical,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis warned during a heated parliamentary debate.
Greeks can no longer travel without authorization sent by SMS, and the government has made some progress with the imposition of a curfew between 9 pm and 5 am since tonight.
Greece has seen 909 deaths and 63,000 infections among its population of 10.9 million, the vast majority in the past four months.
Particularly affected is Thessaloniki, the second largest city in the country, where 32% of people have tested positive.
Former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, head of Syriza, the main left-wing opposition party, accused the government of taking too lax an approach to tourist arrivals, but Mitsotakis blamed a laid-back attitude on social distancing and the wearing of masks among Young.
“Some have undermined the health of the majority,” he said.
Restrictions in New York amid surge in cases
Bars and restaurants in New York will close early starting today as the coronavirus outbreak escalates in the United States and Europe, where Greece is forced into a nightly curfew.
It comes as the US, already the worst-affected country in the world, experiences its third and worst increase in infections, with much of Europe shutting down again to tackle the disease.
New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that all establishments licensed to sell alcohol, including bars and restaurants, must close at 10 p.m. local time.
New York was the first epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the US, but hotspots have appeared across the country since then, leaving virtually no US region unaffected.
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Yesterday, Chicago issued a new stay-at-home warning, with the mayor asking his 2.7 million people to reject Thanksgiving plans and avoid travel.
“Each and every one of us must step up and ‘Protect Chicago’ right now, or 2020 could go from bad to worse,” read a note on the city’s website.
More than 1,000 people die every day from Covid-19 in the US, according to data from the Covid Tracking Project.
The world got a much-needed dose of hope this week when US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech said their vaccine was 90% effective.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, a leading US infectious disease specialist, welcomed the news and said that “cavalry” was on the way, but warned people not to allow the wearing of masks, distancing and other measures slip away.
Speaking to a London think tank via video link, he said another vaccine is “literally about to be announced,” a comment widely interpreted as one developed by the American biotech firm Moderna.
The restrictions recently imposed by Europe are not for Santa
Italy’s prime minister has given a lighter note amid the sadness by telling the country’s children that Santa Claus would skip the lockdown by traveling the world with special permission.
“Santa Claus assured me that he already has an international travel certificate: he can travel everywhere and distribute gifts to all the children in the world,” wrote Giuseppe Conte on Facebook.
In other parts of Europe, the Slovenian government announced the suspension of public transport and a ban on almost all public gatherings and gatherings for the next two weeks.
And Portugal’s prime minister said that a nightly curfew already in place in some parts of the country would now cover around 70% of the population, as the number of Covid patients treated at the hospital was more than double that peak observed in spring.
Meanwhile, Serbian health minister Zlatibor Loncar warned that there were no more hospital beds available for virus patients in the capital Belgrade.
Delhi Records Highest Covid-19 Deaths, Hospitals Flooded
Deaths from Covid-19 in Delhi rose to a record yesterday and it also reported the highest number of infections in India, an increase attributed to the city’s toxic air and a lack of physical distance in public places around a major festival.
While daily case additions have dropped significantly in the country as a whole since a peak in mid-September, the capital city of 20 million people is going through the worst phase of the pandemic.
Delhi reported 104 new deaths and 7,053 new infections. Data from the federal Health Ministry showed earlier today that infections in the country increased by 44,789 in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 8.73 million, just behind the US count.
India’s deaths increased by 547 to 128,668.
As Delhi cases surge into its third wave of infections, many hospitals have already run out of intensive care beds and even normal Covid-19 beds are rapidly filling up.
The air is likely to get worse over the weekend due to thousands of firecrackers lit during the Hindu festival of lights, Diwali. Its residents have already filled the markets to buy gifts for family and friends.
Doctors say that PM2.5 pollutants, fine particles found in high concentration in Delhi’s air, can break the nasal passage barrier, weaken the inner lining of the lungs, and facilitate the spread of coronavirus infection.
Russian cases hit a record as night closures begin in Moscow
Russia today reported a record 21,983 new coronavirus infections, as Moscow prepared to close restaurants and bars overnight in an effort to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite a recent spike, Russian authorities have resisted imposing lockdown restrictions as they did earlier this year, emphasizing instead the importance of hygiene, social distancing and the adoption of specific measures in certain regions.
Moscow, which reported 5,974 new cases in the last 24 hours, ordered the closure of bars, restaurants and nightclubs between 11:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. from today until mid-January. Officials warned of searches and fines for establishments that do not comply.
The sprawling city of nearly 13 million has also moved college and university students to online learning, while it was recommended that school-age children, already learning from home, minimize their travels.
Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has said he hopes Moscow will not have to impose additional restrictions, but could do so if the situation worsens.
Russia’s coronavirus task force has reported 411 coronavirus-related deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the official death toll to 32,443.
With 1,880,551 infections since the start of the pandemic, Russia has the fifth-highest number of cases in the world behind the United States, India, Brazil and France.
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