Spain will allow children outside after six weeks of confinement, the country’s prime minister has announced.
Spanish children have been kept at home since March 14, under strict measures to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Now PM Pedro Sánchez aims to relax the rule on April 27 so they can “get some fresh air”.
Meanwhile, Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau, who has young children herself, this week pleaded with the government to allow children outside.
Spain has seen more than 20,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic and almost 200,000 reported cases.
In a TV briefing on April 18, PM Sánchez said Spain had left behind “the most extreme moments and contained the brutal onslaught of the pandemic”.
However, the prime minister said he would ask parliament to extend the country’s state of alarm to May 9 as the achievements made were “still insufficient and above all fragile” and could not be jeopardized by “hasty decisions”.
Another 410 deaths were reported on April 19 – fewer than the previous day. The latest death toll is well down from the peak of the pandemic, and the government allowed some non-essential workers to resume construction and manufacturing on April 13.
However, the main lockdown measures remain in place, with adults only allowed out to visit food stores and pharmacies or work considered essential. Children have been barred from going outside their homes completely.
Spain’s eight million children have already spent five weeks in confinement and there has been growing unease at the risk to their health.
The Spanish Children’s Rights Coalition has warned of mental and physical health problems for children as a result of such measures and called for boys and girls to be allowed outside to play and do some physical activity.
Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau demanded: “These children need to get out. Wait no more: Free our children!”
Italy and Austria seek to ease restrictions brought in to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
The European Commission has urged EU countries to co-ordinate with each other to relax measures gradually.
An internal document sent by the Commission to EU governments said that even phased measures would “unavoidably lead to a corresponding increase in new cases”.
Lifting restrictions had to wait for the spread of the virus to be reduced for a significant period, it said, with enough capacity in intensive care units to cope with a second surge in cases and increased testing, along with mass antibody tests.
Garden centers, DIY stores and small stores can open but with strict rules on social distancing.
Spain has allowed some businesses to return to work, and Denmark is reopening schools for younger children. Poland has said it will gradually lift restrictions on its economy from April 12, probably starting with general stores.
Spain reported its lowest increase in infections since March 20 on April 14. There has been a 1.8% increase from April 13 to 3,045. The number of deaths has gone up by 567 to 18,056.
In France, President Emmanuel Macron extended France’s lockdown for another four weeks until May 11, as he said current restrictions had slowed the virus but not beaten it.
In Germany, the head of Robert Koch public health institute said that while there had been a slowdown it was too early to talk of a clear trend.
In Italy, where over 20,000 people have died in the pandemic, a limited number of shops and businesses have been allowed to reopen.
However, some of the worst-hit regions have decided to hold off.
Lombardy and other regions in the north will maintain their measures for longer.
After five weeks under lockdown, bookstores, stationery and clothes for babies and young children can reopen their doors but with strict rules on customer numbers and hygiene.
Businesses, stores and schools should lead the way, followed by limited reopening of restaurants, bars and cafes.
The reopening of bookshops and clothes stores for young children is a glimmer of hope, after Italy saw 20,465 fatalities, second only to the US in the number of deaths officially caused by Covid-19.
The daily toll of fatalities is now falling and the number of patients in intensive care has dropped for 10 days in a row to 3,260. However, Lombardy, where Italy’s outbreak began, still saw another 280 deaths declared on April 13, and officials have decided to allow children’s clothing shops to open, but not bookshops.
Also in the north, some of the worst-affected areas of Emilia-Romagna will stay locked down, while in Veneto officials are talking of a “soft lockdown”. Bookstores and clothing stores can open for two days a week, says Veneto governor Luca Zaia, and a ban on exercising more than 200m away from home has been lifted. But residents will still need to wear a mask and gloves if they go out.
Austria was one of the first European countries to follow neighboring Italy in imposing strict lockdown measures about a month ago, and the government says it has managed to flatten the curve of new infections. It has so far reported about 14,000 cases and 368 deaths.
Last week, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz unveiled plans to lift restrictions gradually.
In an open letter to the country on April 11, Sebastian Kurz said he wanted to “come out of this crisis as quickly as possible and fight for every job in Austria”.
From April 14, stores under 400 sq m (4,300 sq ft) in size are allowed to reopen, along with hardware stores and garden centers.
However, it is also compulsory for people to wear a mask in supermarkets and pharmacies.
Economy Minister Margarete Schramböck told Austrian TV: “Experience in countries that have handled it well has taught us that we have to move gradually.”
Larger stores, shopping centers and hairdressers are due to reopen from May 1, while restaurants and hotels could reopen from mid-May if health conditions allow, Austria’s chancellor has said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) welcomed the slowing down of infections in some European countries but warned against lifting restrictions too early, so as not to prompt “a deadly resurgence”.
Italy’s worst-hit region of Lombardy has
introduced stricter measures in a bid to tackle the spread of coronavirus.
Under the new rules announced on March 21, sport and physical activity
outside, even individually, is banned. Using vending machines is forbidden.
The move comes as Italy reported nearly 800 coronavirus deaths on March 21
and saw its toll for the past month reach 4,825, the highest in the world.
Lombardy is the worst-affected region in the country with 3,095 deaths.
The region’s President Attilio Fontana announced the new measures in a
statement.
Businesses have been asked to close all operations excluding “essential”
supply chains. Work on building sites will be stopped apart from those working
on hospitals, roads and railways.
Across Italy there have been 53,578 total cases to date, with about 6,000
people having recovered.
The region of Lombardy has been under a lockdown since March 8 and the
government had hoped to see results there first.
On March 21, Italian PM Giuseppe Conte ordered the closure of all
“non-essential” businesses in the country. However, the prime
minister did not specify which businesses would be considered essential.
Supermarkets, pharmacies, post offices and banks will remain open and public
transport will continue to run.
During a TV address to the nation, PM Conte said: “We will slow down the country’s productive engine, but we will
not stop it.”
He described the situation as “the most difficult crisis in our
post-war period”.
Despite the measures introduced so
far, the number of new cases and deaths in Italy has continued to grow.
Meanwhile, Spain’s health ministry
has reported a 32% spike in new deaths from Covid-19 with 1,326 confirmed
deaths, the second highest in Europe after Italy.
In a news conference on March 21, PM
Pedro Sánchez warned “the worst is yet to come” and that “very
difficult days lay ahead”.
The Spanish government has issued a
lockdown for some 46 million people who are only allowed to leave their homes
for essential work, food shopping, medical reasons or to walk the dog.
Global cases pass 300,000 with more than 13,000 deaths around the world; 92,000 people have recovered.
In an effort to halt the coronavirus spread, India
has announced that all visas, barring a select few categories, will be
suspended for a month.
Visa free travel afforded to overseas citizens of the country has also been
suspended until April 15.
The move is expected to impact tourism, hotel and aviation industries in
what will be more bad news for the slowing economy.
According to the health ministry, India has 73 confirmed cases of the virus.
This number is expected to grow in coming days, as the results for tests
conducted earlier become available.
The advisory, issued on March 11, says that only diplomatic, official,
employment and project visas will be exempt from the current restrictions,
which take effect on March 13 and will be reviewed again in a month.
However, it has said that even those allowed in could be subject to 14 days
of quarantine and has warned against “non-essential travel”.
The health ministry says India was among the first countries in the world to
prepare for an outbreak of the respiratory illness.
However, there are concerns about whether India will be fully equipped to
prevent and treat an outbreak.
Officials in the southern state of Karnataka have invoked the provisions of
a 123-year-old legislation to ensure that patients suspected to have shown
symptoms of Covid-19 do not run away from being treated at hospitals or violate
home quarantine norms.
The provision that has been invoked under the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897
says that any person or organization or institution that violates the
regulations will be prosecuted.
Karnataka was prompted to enact the legislation after a passenger from
Dubai, who was tested at the Mangalore airport and was found to have mild
fever, ran away from a government hospital where he was taken for observation.
The travel restrictions are also expected to badly hit several key sectors
of India’s economy.
India’s leading domestic airline, IndiGo, has already said that it expects
its quarterly earnings to be materially impacted because of the virus.
The car industry, which is a key economic indicator, has also warned that
production could be badly hit as 10% of its raw materials come from China.
Moody’s also downgraded India’s expected growth to 5.3%.
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