Coronavirus live updates: India overtakes Italy as sixth worst-hit country
Sri Lanka’s tourism industry – decimated by the Covid-19 pandemic – can reopen to foreign visitors later this summer but only under strict guidelines, officials have said.
Travellers will be able to visit the country from August, Sri Lanka’s tourism ministry said, but they must carry coronavirus-free certificates issued no earlier than 72 hours before boarding. Only those who will spend a minimum of five days in Sri Lanka will be allowed in.
It comes after the country was only just recovering from the devastating impact of last year’s Easter Sunday bombings, in which 279 were killed, when the pandemic halted international travel. Hotels shut, leaving tens of thousands of people jobless.
AFP reports that even with the certificates, tourists will have to take a virus test at the airport upon arrival. A further check will be done four to five days later – and a third if staying for more than 10 days.
“While this may be inconvenient it is essential to safeguard everybody and provide peace of mind,” the ministry said.
Visa fees will increase in price from $40 to $100, with visitors only allowed to stay in hotels designated by the ministry. They will not be allowed to use public transport on the island.
The country has reported 11 deaths and 1,801 confirmed infections since its first coronavirus patient was identified on January 27. Visitor numbers to Sri Lanka dropped to 1.91 million last year, down from 2.33 million in the previous year.
In Turkey, people are enjoying their first weekend without Covid-19 lockdown in nearly two months after the country’s president, Tayyip Erdoğan, suddenly scrapped a stay-at-home order.
Cafes, restaurants and other facilities reopened on Monday as infection rates slowed and restrictions on intercity travel were lifted. Erdoğan had intended to maintain the weekend lockdown, applied to big cities since 11 April, until a public backlash.
Today people have flooded beaches and shores in Istanbul, and hundreds queued to get into parks, Reuters reports. In the capital, Ankara, day-trippers caused traffic jams.
“The last time I was here was 70 days ago,” Gulay Cevik, a housewife in Istanbul fishing in the Eminonu district told Reuters.
I would always come here to fish, but since the outbreak we’ve had to protect ourselves a bit. But I really missed it.”
Cevdet Akaydan, a 23-year-old public servant, was out swimming with his friends along the shore in western Istanbul. “It’s really nice, very clean and cool right now, it relaxes you,” he said. “Everyone should come, and go in … You can’t explain it, you have to experience it.”
But Erdoğan has expressed concern that infections could rebound. On Friday, 930 new coronavirus cases were reported, after a drop to 786 earlier in the week. So far, 4,648 people have died from the virus in Turkey, with 168,340 infections.
“You really get giddy like a child. It’s lockdown, lockdown, lockdown,” said Cem Pehlivan, a textile worker fishing in Istanbul. “Now I feel really good, I’m comfortable and the weather’s fine.”
Madrid residents wearing face masks queued two metres apart to be among the first visitors back in the Spanish city’s famed galleries today as the country eases out of Covid-19 lockdown measures.
The Prado, Reina Sofia and Thyssen-Bornemisza museums reopened after nearly three months of restrictions.
“I was really looking forward to coming back. To see how it has come back to life makes me very emotional,” masters student Alejandro Elizalde told Reuters, wiping away tears while viewing Diego de Velazquez’s “Las Meninas”, one of the Prado’s most famous paintings.
State-run museums were shut on 12 March as part of measures imposed to curb the spread of the disease, which has now seen the death toll top 27,000 with more than 240,000 confirmed cases. Restrictions have been lifted gradually, with Madrid one of the slowest places to ease curbs as it was among the worst hit.
The Prado and Reina Sofia are not yet fully open, but many masterpieces, including works by Velazquez and Goya in the Prado and Picasso’s “Guernica” in the Reina Sofia, are on display.
Health measures are in force, including physical distancing, reduced capacity and timed tickets for visits. Staff took visitors’ temperatures as they entered the Prado.
“It’s a really weird feeling and at the same time it’s really good because I’ve never been in the Reina Sofia with so few people,” business developer Elena Vázquez said.
Spain will further ease the lockdown in Madrid and Barcelona from Monday, when bar and restaurant patrons will be allowed to sit inside rather than just on outdoor terraces.
And in over half the country, nightclubs will be allowed to reopen, but dancing will not be permitted. The government is instead suggesting dance floor space be used for tables.
Confirmed Covid-19 infections in Afghanistan have passed 19,000, amid a warning that the actual number of cases of the disease in the country may be much higher than official figures show.
The health ministry has detected 582 new cases from 761 tests, according to the latest update, bringing the total number of infections to 19,551. Eighteen patients also died overnight, meaning the country’s Covid-19 death toll stands at 327. There have been 1,830 recoveries.
It comes as the health ministry has announced new measures imposed from today to help contain the spread of the virus, including that masks must be worn in public places, two-metre physical distancing must be maintained and gatherings of more than 10 people should be avoided. Elderly people should not leave their homes and workplaces must be disinfected.
At a press conference on Saturday, deputy health minister Wahid Majrooh pledged that 14 new testing labs would be launched in Afghanistan. Last week, the International Rescue Committee warned about the low capacity of testing and said the Afghan health ministry had the capacity to test 2,000 suspected patients each day, but were receiving between 10,000 and 20,000 samples each day.
Speaking at the same conference, Kabul’s governor, Mohammad Yakub Haidary, said:
I receive calls during nights and days, from ordinary people and officials, saying that their relatives are either sick or died. [The] number of infections is more than what we imagine, in Kabul, it may be more than a million as testing capacity is too low.
There is a catastrophe going on in Kabul, we have suspected deaths which we didn’t have previously, and we didn’t have burials during nights but now, we have it. I seriously ask people of Kabul and all around the country to wear masks, we will monitor and publish those who don’t wear it. Also, respect social distancing.”
Most of the new cases were reported in the western province of Herat, where 193 out of 200 tests returned positive results. Herat borders Iran – which has been badly hit by the pandemic – and the first case of the virus was reported in the province after thousands of Afghan migrants returned from the neighbouring country in February and March, fanning out across the country without being tested or quarantined. The total number of infections in Herat is 3,621 with 64 deaths.
In the capital, Kabul, 161 new cases have been recorded. In the remote province of Kunar, five patients tested all returned positive results, as seven patients died of Covid-19 overnight. In Helmand, two patients tested in the last 24 hours both were positive and the province recorded its first death.
Meanwhile, amid continuing conflict, at least 20 Afghan security forces personnel were killed in two incidents in the last 24 hours. Ten Afghan security forces were killed on Friday in an attack by the Taliban on the Zabul-Kandahar highway near the city of Qalat, in Zabul province, local officials said. Eleven members of the Afghan local police, including their commander, were killed in a roadside bomb blast in Badakhshan province on Friday night, the provincial police spokesman said.
Dutch mink farms have begun a government-ordered mass cull amid concern that animals infected with coronavirus could transmit the illness to humans.
Infected mink have been found on 10 Dutch farms where the ferret-like animals are bred for their fur, according to the country’s Food & Wares Authority, Reuters reports.
The government ordered the cull of 10,000 mink on Wednesday after determining that affected farms could act as a long-term reservoir of disease.
Dutch mink were first infected with coronavirus by their handlers in April.
In May, the government identified two cases in which humans had been infected by sick animals – the only animal-to-human transmissions known since the global outbreak began in China.
Infected mink don’t necessarily develop signs of disease, making them potential silent sources of the pandemic virus, said Arjan Stegeman, a veterinary epidemiologist at Utrecht University who is investigating the outbreak, according to Bloomberg.
Groups opposed to the fur trade say the outbreak is another reason to close all farms.
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- India has overtaken Italy as the sixth worst-hit country in the coronavirus pandemic after another biggest single-day rise in confirmed infections. India’s health ministry reported 9,887 new cases on Saturday, bringing the official total to 236,657. It means it now has fewer confirmed cases than only the US, Brazil, Russia, UK and Spain.
- As Black Lives Matter protests continue across the world, thousands took to the streets in Sydney. Aerial footage shows demonstrators snaking through the Australian city on a Stop All Black Deaths in Custody rally. It was declared an authorised public assembly minutes before its scheduled start time of 3pm, after a court ruling was overturned.
- In Russia, 197 more people have died with coronavirus in the last 24 hours, bringing the country’s official death toll to 5,725. There were 8,855 new cases, according to officials, pushing the total number of infections to 458,689.
- Italy hopes other EU countries will reopen their borders to its citizens on 15 June, the country’s foreign minister has said, as travel restrictions across Europe are gradually eased.
- In South Africa, as cases rise in the Western Cape province – the centre of the country’s outbreak – doctors are voicing concern about other diseases being neglected while medical attention is focused on the pandemic.
- Indonesia has reported its biggest daily rise in infections, with 993 new cases, taking its total official number to 30,514.
- In Nepal, climbers who earn a living supporting international expeditions to the summit of Everest have been left destitute by the cancellation of this year’s climbing season.
- Scientists expect to be able to declare next week that New Zealand is coronavirus-free.
Italy hopes other EU countries will reopen their borders to its citizens on 15 June, the country’s foreign minister has said, as Covid-19 travel restrictions across Europe are gradually eased.
Italy, which has the world’s fourth-highest coronavirus death toll, opened its doors to other EU citizens on 3 June, but most European countries are still largely off-limits for Italian nationals.
“15 June is an important date for many of our citizens,” Luigi Di Maio told a news conference during a visit to neighbouring Slovenia.
Germany and Switzerland have indicated that they could open their borders to Italians from that date, Di Maio said. Reuters reports that he said he hoped border openings would apply to people from all parts of Italy, including those areas worst-affected by the outbreak.
Speaking at the same press conference, the Slovenian foreign minister, Anze Logar said: “Health conditions in Italy are improving fast … I’m looking optimistically towards 15 June.”
Italy has reported about 234,500 confirmed coronavirus cases and 33,770 deaths. Slovenia, which declared an end to its coronavirus epidemic last month, has reported 1,479 coronavirus cases and 109 deaths. It has allowed the entry of people from neighbouring Croatia, Hungary and Austria in recent weeks.
French Polynesia, which comprises more than 100 islands in the South Pacific, will open to international travel next month in a bid to salvage its vital tourism industry.
The French overseas territory, which has reported just 60 cases of Covid-19 and no deaths, stopped international flights in March amid the pandemic. But, with no tourists able to visit for three months and hotels shut, AFP reports that there have been calls to ease restrictions to help restart the ailing economy.
“We are going to open up our country even more to save jobs,” said President Edouard Fritch, adding that nearly 19,000 Polynesians have jobs in or related to the tourism sector. On 3 July citizens will be allowed to return and quarantine restrictions on arrivals will also be eased.
From 15 July, it will once again accept international tourism from its main markets in Europe and the US. “We are no longer in a health emergency, but we are facing an economic and social emergency,” said tourism and employment minister Nicole Bouteau.
In South Africa, as Covid-19 cases rise in the Western Cape province – the centre of the country’s outbreak – doctors are voicing concern about other diseases being neglected while medical attention is focused on the pandemic.
The Western Cape province, a popular tourist destination home to the coastal city of Cape Town, accounts for 66% of South Africa’s 43,434 coronavirus cases and 77% of the 908 deaths. Meanwhile, provincial authorities predict infections will almost quadruple to 100,000 in coming weeks.
AFP reports that many medical practitioners have been moved from specialised wards such as oncology and anaesthesiology to help treat Covid-19 patients – meaning a large number of other patients could be left in the lurch as a result.
Around half the staff at Cape Town’s Groote Schuur hospital have been earmarked for redeployment as the pandemic moves towards an expected peak between the end of June and the beginning of July. Experts fear this could affect planned surgeries and other services, according to AFP.
“The intense focus on Covid has created a backlog of patients with non-Covid diseases who are not able to access care,” a group of doctors from Groote Schuur wrote in the South African Medical Journal last month.
“Many cancer diagnoses and hence treatments have been delayed, as have joint replacements and cataract surgery,” the doctors said, warning that patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes and asthma had “missed appointments”. “Many are unable to access medications,” they added.
Meanwhile, several hospitals in Cape Town told AFP that they had stopped elective imaging, procedures and surgery, while outpatient clinics had been scaled down. Many patients have also avoided hospital visits for fear of contracting the virus. University of Cape Town oncologist Jeanette Parkes said all routine check-ups had been cancelled.
It is estimated that the virus will create a backlog of about 150,000 procedures in South Africa, according to the Cape Town-based professors Bruce Biccard and Lydia Cairncross in a recent article published in the country’s online Daily Maverick.
Poland is planning to extend a ban on international flights until 16 June, according to reports.
Citing a government decree, state-run news agency PAP reported the news last night.
It comes after state-controlled Polish airlines LOT restarted flights between the country’s biggest cities, including Warsaw, Gdansk, Krakow, and Wroclaw, from 1 June.
As of Friday, Poland has reported 25,410 confirmed coronavirus cases, including 1,137 deaths.
Read the original article at The Guardian