Europe eases restrictions but Covid-19 still a worldwide menace

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"2">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>Germany and several other European countries where the coronavirus spread has slowed were moving ahead with relaxing border restrictions&comma; while flare-ups in Mexico and elsewhere served as a reminder the pandemic is far from over&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Slovenia&comma; which has been gradually easing strict lockdown measures&comma; declared that the spread of the virus is now under control and that European Union residents could now enter from Austria&comma; Italy and Hungary&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Germany&comma; meantime&comma; was preparing to open its border entirely with Luxembourg at midnight&comma; and increase the number of crossings open from France&comma; Switzerland and Austria&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Travellers will still need to demonstrate a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;valid reason” to enter Germany and there will be spot checks&comma; but the goal is to restore free travel by June 15&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;--Ads1--><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Germany’s states have also agreed to drop a mandatory 14-day quarantine for travellers entering from the European Union and several other European countries&comma; including Britain&comma; said Armin Laschet&comma; the governor of the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Germany will only overcome the corona crisis if European freedom of movement for people&comma; goods and services is fully restored&comma;” Mr Laschet said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Germany has seen more than 170&comma;000 Covid-19 infections and nearly 8&comma;000 deaths&comma; but more than 150&comma;000 people have recovered and the country has been seeing fewer than 1&comma;000 new cases per day&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Austria and Switzerland were also moving ahead with easing some border restrictions&comma; and Austria reopened all cafes and restaurants&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I have been having breakfast at this cafe for about 100 years&comma;” said Helmut Gollner&comma; a former literature professor who was one of the first guests Friday morning at Vienna’s Cafe Sperl&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;My wife always made great breakfast but it’s a different atmosphere here with the newspapers and so on&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Restaurants were reopening in more German states Friday as well&comma; and the country was to resume professional football on Saturday after a two-month hiatus&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Bundesliga plans five games with no fans present and other precautions&comma; including the Ruhr derby between Borussia Dortmund and Schalke&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In the Vatican&comma; moves were under way to deep clean St Peter’s Basilica while Sweden’s prime minister defended his country’s handling of the crisis&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;--Ads2--><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In Sydney&comma; many cafes and restaurants opened again Friday as New South Wales&comma; Australia’s most populous state&comma; granted permission for them&comma; as well as places of worship&comma; to reopen with up to 10 people so long as distancing rules are in place&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Many Catholic churches across the state opened for private prayer&comma; confession and small-scale masses&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The celebration of Mass is the highest form of Catholic worship and to not be able to physically gather these past two months has been very difficult&comma;” Sydney’s Archbishop Anthony Fisher said in a statement&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In Japan&comma; some schools&comma; restaurants and other businesses started to reopen after the country lifted its national coronavirus emergency&comma; while keeping in place restrictions in limited urban areas like Tokyo where risks remain&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;londonglossy&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;05&sol;2ECFD3C9-856D-4AE6-A66B-E31677138526&period;jpeg" alt&equals;"Coronavirus cases and deaths" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"505" class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-155397" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As countries move ahead with relaxing restrictions&comma; the head of the World Health Organisation’s Europe office&comma; Dr Hans Kluge&comma; warned that distancing guidance and other protective measures were more important than ever&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It’s very important to remind everyone that as long as there is no vaccine and effective treatment&comma; there is no return to normal&comma;” he said on French radio Europe-1&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This virus won’t simply disappear&comma; so the personal behavior of each of us will determine the behaviour of the virus&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Governments have done a lot&comma; and now the responsibility is on the people&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Worldwide&comma; there have been more than 4&period;4 million coronavirus infections reported and 300&comma;000 deaths&comma; while nearly 1&period;6 million people have recovered according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A first case was confirmed among the one million refugees from Myanmar living in dire&comma; overcrowded conditions in southern Bangladesh&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Another&comma; a local person living in the Cox’s Bazaar district&comma; also tested positive&comma; refugee commissioner Mahbub Alam Takukder said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Aid workers have been warning of the potential for a serious outbreak if the virus reaches the camps&comma; and teams were activated to treat patients and trace&comma; quarantine and test people they may have encountered&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ahead of Mexico’s plan to partially reopen key industries such as mining&comma; construction and auto plants on May 18&comma; authorities sounded a note of concern as the country reported its largest one-day rise in coronavirus case numbers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There were 2&comma;409 new Covid-19 test confirmations Thursday&comma; the first time that number has exceeded 2&comma;000 in one day&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We are at the moment of the fastest growth in new cases&comma;” said assistant health secretary Hugo Lopez-Gatell&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This is the most difficult moment&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Deaths have neared 4&comma;500 and there were signs that hospital capacity was nearing its limit in Mexico City&comma; the hardest-hit area&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;--Ads3--><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Health Department reported that 73&percnt; of the city’s general-care hospital beds were full&semi; the percentage was lower for intensive-care beds&comma; but that was partly because of the expansion of improvised ICU units at hospitals and other venues&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In Brazil&comma; news website G1 reported that 900 people in Rio de Janeiro were waiting for an intensive-care bed in one of the state’s overwhelmed units&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>President Jair Bolsonaro warned of looming &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;chaos” as he once again lambasted governors and mayors who introduced lockdowns in cities to limit spread of the new virus&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I’m sorry&comma; many will die&comma; but even more will if the economy continues to be destroyed by these measures&comma;” Mr Bolsonaro told journalists in Brasilia on Thursday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;These lockdowns&comma; closing everything&comma; is the path to failure&period; It will break Brazil&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Colombian President Ivan Duque has ordered all residents of the Amazonas Department&comma; near the border with Brazil&comma; to stay inside except to buy food or get medical care&period; Local hospitals are being overwhelmed as cases rise in a vulnerable part of the Amazon&comma; home to many indigenous groups&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In the US&comma; the Grand Canyon National Park was reopening on Friday to allow visitors in for day trips but not overnight&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As a number of regions in New York were to reopen&comma; Governor Andrew Cuomo urged local governments to keep a close eye on key metrics&comma; and that people and businesses were complying with distancing rules&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Amid those and other reopenings&comma; protests and debate persisted over how quickly to end shutdowns&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>With more than 1&period;4 million infections and nearly 85&comma;000 deaths&comma; the US has the largest outbreak in the world by far&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Two weeks into a reopening in Texas&comma; where stay-at-home orders expired May 1&comma; single-day highs of 58 deaths and 1&comma;458 new cases were reported on Thursday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>With more restrictions due to end on Monday&comma; including reopening gyms&comma; confrontations were brewing between big cities trying to keep some precautions in place and state officials who want to push ahead&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In Virginia&comma; two cities asked Governor Ralph Northam to delay a reopening planned for Friday&comma; saying it was too early&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Kansas’ Democratic Governor Laura Kelly put the brakes on reopening her state’s economy&comma; ordering bars and bowling alleys to stay closed until June instead of reopening on Monday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>She is also keeping some coronavirus-inspired restrictions in place until late June&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68eceaedf375f">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; 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