Parts of Europe to ease coronavirus rules to allow Christmas shopping, gathering
- From Belgium to Poland, some stores will be allowed to reopen to give families a brief respite during the holiday season
- Although the spread of Covid-19 is slowing thanks to weeks of tough restrictions, Europe remains at the heart of the pandemic
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Belgium is to allow shops to reopen from December 1, but keep the current semi-lockdown in place possibly until mid-January.
The move mirrors similar easing in Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
The Italian government partially lifted restrictions in Lombardy and Piedmont in the north, and Calabria in the south from Sunday, changing their alert levels from red to orange.
And Ireland has also announced a staggered easing of restrictions to allow some businesses to reopen and for families to gather ahead of Christmas.
Speaking in a televised address, Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin said the upcoming festive period “cannot and will not be the kind of Christmas we are used to” but added the easing of restrictions would offer “some respite from the hardships of 2020 and in particular, the last six weeks”.
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Although the virus spread is slowing thanks to weeks of tough restrictions, Europe remains at the heart of the pandemic, recording more cases than the United States in the past week.
Until recently, Germany’s relative success in containing the virus had offered some sense of hope, with authorities putting in place some precautions that still allowed life to carry on almost as normal.
However, its measured approach has failed during the second wave, endangering the health of Europe’s biggest economy and weighing on the mood as the northern hemisphere heads into the winter holidays.
Germany’s Robert Koch Institute recorded more than 22,000 new daily cases on Friday, pushing the overall total beyond the one-million mark.
More worryingly, the number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care has soared from around 360 in early October to more than 3,500 last week.
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Worry over the virus’s rapid spread led Los Angeles county to announce a temporary ban on gatherings of people from different households, with religious services and protests exempt.
The order affecting the second-largest American city will take effect on Monday and last at least three weeks, until December 20, the county’s public health department said.
California last week imposed a nighttime curfew across much of the state.
Sports was also affected in the United States. The NFL postponed a pivotal match-up between the unbeaten Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens to Tuesday because of a Covid-19 outbreak among Ravens players.
Further north in Canada, whose largest city Toronto is under lockdown, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that a general who led Nato‘s mission in Iraq as well as Canadian troops in Afghanistan and Bosnia would spearhead a gigantic vaccination drive.
“This will be the biggest immunisation in the history of the country,” Trudeau said.
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Globally, more than 1.4 million deaths and 61 million infections have been officially recorded, although the real numbers are unknown since testing and reporting methods vary greatly.
With the virus on the march and the roll-out of the first vaccines not expected until next month, much of the world faces a gloomy winter under more lockdowns, with an accompanying increase in economic anxiety and mental strain.
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Lockdown fatigue is spreading even as governments unfurl new measures to save health care systems from collapse.
One hairdresser in northern England has become a cause célèbre among social media libertarians after stacking up fines totalling £17,000 (US$23,000), invoking the Magna Carta of 1215.
Among others invoking Magna Carta to stay open have been a tattoo parlour in Bristol, western England, and a children’s soft-play centre in Liverpool, in the northwest.
Law enforcers have taken a dim view, meting out fines and reminding all businesses that legislation of this year, not 800 years ago, is relevant and binding.
Nations are now trying to gauge how people, exhausted by one of the most traumatic years in generations, can enjoy a small holiday break without making things worse.
