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PARIS – Countries around the world tightened restrictions on their populations on Saturday to combat a resurgence of the coronavirus, as the European Union offered to help pharmaceutical companies expand vaccine production to improve “bottlenecks” in distribution.
From local curfews to liquor bans and outright shutdowns, governments are trying to address an increase in cases.
The coronavirus has killed more than 1.8 million people worldwide since it emerged in China in December 2019, according to a count from official sources compiled by AFP.
But experts fear the worst is yet to come and predict a sharp increase in cases and deaths after weeks of festive gatherings.
French police booked hundreds of New Years revelers for circumventing anti-COVID measures at an illegal rave.
In Bangkok, the city’s nightlife closed following a ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages in bars, nightclubs and restaurants, among a series of restrictions aimed at curbing the rise in the coronavirus rate in the kingdom.
Public schools in the Thai capital will close for two weeks.
An outbreak last month in a huge seafood market has sparked a resurgence of the virus in Thailand, with infections detected in 53 of the kingdom’s 77 provinces.
In Tokyo, the city governor on Saturday called on Japan’s government to declare a new state of emergency as the country battles a third wave of the coronavirus, with a record number of new cases.
Vaccine race
The growing number of infections around the world means that the race for vaccination will dominate next year.
But the delays in obtaining the vaccines were not the fault of the European Union, said the bloc’s health commissioner, Stella Kyriakides.
“The bottleneck at the moment is not the volume of orders, but the global shortage of production capacity,” he said.
The bloc would help pharmaceutical companies in their efforts to develop candidate vaccines, he added.
“The situation will improve step by step.”
India on Saturday held drills across the country to kick off one of the world’s largest coronavirus vaccination programs as the drug regulator prepared to approve the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine.
In the United States, the vaccination program has been affected by logistical problems, even as the worst affected country in the world exceeded 20 million cases.
In Russia, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said that more than 800,000 people had received the domestically produced Sputnik V vaccine and that 1.5 million doses of about 147 million had been distributed across the country.
The Kremlin has refrained from imposing virus restrictions across the country, instead pinning its hopes on the mass vaccination campaign to end the pandemic and save its struggling economy from the blow of another blockade.
The French government, facing the threat of a new wave of COVID-19 infections, extended the night curfew by two hours in some parts of the country to help fight the virus.
The curfew will begin at 6 p.m., instead of 8 p.m. in parts of France, mainly in the east of the country. Paris, for now, has gotten rid of the additional restriction.
‘We had to party’
The new French restrictions came as police searched more than 1,200 revelers on Saturday after an illegal rave in northwestern France finally ended after more than two days of partying that also saw clashes with police.
Of these, around 800 people were booked for disobeying anti-virus measures, while Brittany’s regional health authority noted the “high risk of spreading COVID-19” at the event.
“We knew what we were risking … we had to celebrate, for a year everything has stalled,” said one of the revelers, a 20-year-old waitress.
Spanish police broke up another meeting on Saturday near Barcelona, where 300 people had been partying for more than 40 hours.
And footballers were also among those caught breaking coronavirus rules, with Tottenham’s Erik Lamela, Sergio Reguilon and Giovani Lo Celso being disciplined after a photo emerged of them attending a big party.
Norway, which has one of the lowest infection rates in Europe, began requiring COVID-19 testing upon arrival in the country on Saturday, after finding five cases of a new variant of coronavirus that first emerged in Britain. .
Denmark discovered 86 cases of the new variant, which is believed to be more contagious.
The small British enclave of Gibraltar, facing Spain, entered a 14-day blockade on Saturday. Chief Minister Fabián Picardo said the virus was spreading “faster than we can control it.”
Greece has extended its strict two-month lockdown measures until January 10, ending a relaxation of restrictions during the holiday period.
In Lebanon, doctors warned that hospitals are overwhelmed by coronavirus cases, in the wake of the year-end holidays.
But in Australia, the finishing touches were being put on a dazzling show at the Sydney Opera House on Saturday, as the venue prepared to host an opera crowd for the first time since March following a hiatus from the virus. -French Media Agency
