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Rome (AFP)
The Italian group “Costa” resumes its leisure cruises this Sunday, with the ship “Costa Deliciosa” sailing after a suspension of more than five months due to the emerging Corona virus, which several countries impose measures to prevent it from spreading again.
According to the latest balance of the epidemic compiled by Agence France-Presse, according to official sources, as of 11:00 GMT on Sunday, Covid-19 has killed at least 880,396 people since its appearance in China at the end of last December.
As for the number of injured, it reached 26 million and 947 thousand 550, 17 million and 709 thousand and 800 of them at least have been cured.
But these numbers only reflect a fraction of the actual number of wounded, as many countries do not test except for the seriously injured, while others prioritize tracking the wounded, and many poor countries have only limited capabilities to detect wounded.
The Costa Deliciosa is supposed to set sail on Sunday afternoon from the port of Trieste on the Adriatic Sea in northeastern Italy, for a seven-day passenger cruise on a cruise limited to Italian ports overlooking the Adriatic and the Bahrain Mediterranean.
The company will make its first flights in September only “for residents of Italy”. It will be carried out in accordance with the measures established by Carnival Corp’s US subsidiary and a group of scientific experts, according to a company statement.
This is good news for the shipping sector, which has seen years of continued growth through 2018, and is now trying to recover from the economic crisis triggered by Covid-19.
Passengers on board will gradually board the ship, half an hour apart. In the building that will receive them in the port of Trieste, they will have to take their temperature, undergo a virus detection test and fill out a health form with their data. They will only be allowed to board the ship if they meet all the required criteria.
– Close again –
On Saturday alone, there were 5,171 new deaths and 268,142 new infections worldwide with the virus. As for the countries with the highest number of new deaths, they are India (1065), followed by the United States (805) and Brazil (982).
At the same time, several countries are resuming the imposition of quarantine measures fearing the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic again.
On Sunday, French authorities put seven other regions, including large cities like Lille, Strasbourg and Dijon, on high alert as the number of Covid-19 infections accelerated. Twenty-eight of the 101 regions in France and abroad have become “red zones” in which the authorities can impose exceptional measures.
France announced that 8,550 new infections were recorded on Saturday.
For its part, Israel, which registers a large number of casualties, announced its intention to re-impose the closure of dozens of cities and neighborhoods, especially the ultra-Orthodox and Arab ones. The government will release a list of “red cities”, which will be closed from Monday.
On Sunday, Australian officials also extended strict lockdown measures to contain Covid-19 in the country’s second-largest city for an additional two weeks, noting that the number of new infections had not decreased enough to prevent it from increasing. again.
The six-week lockdown in Melbourne was supposed to be lifted by the end of next week, but will now run until September 28, according to Victoria’s Prime Minister Daniel Andrews.
Demonstrations and return to schools
On the other hand, several cities witnessed demonstrations against the closure measures. Thousands of Croats gathered in Zagreb on Saturday to protest measures imposed by the authorities to confront Corona, and protesters say they violate their freedoms and human rights.
In addition, a thousand people demonstrated on Saturday afternoon in the center of Rome to protest against the obligation of school-age children to wear muzzles, as well as vaccination against the virus. The protesters, most of whom did not wear a mask, held up banners reading “No to mandatory vaccination, yes to freedom of choice”, “No masks in schools or social distancing”, “Individual freedom is sacred” and “Long live freedom”.
And the return to school raises widespread controversy.
However, the school year began in Iran on Saturday for some 15 million students, many of whom were left out of the classroom, amid fears of a virus outbreak, while authorities confirmed the adoption of all preventive measures to avoid the “Covid-19”.
In New York, many modest families are faced with a dilemma, which is the need to choose between sending their children to school and exposing them to the risk of contracting Corona and transmitting the infection to a family that does not have health insurance, or leaving them in home for them to follow lessons electronically, which can prevent parents from working and threaten their academic future.
© 2020 AFP
