(Melbourne) The number of coronavirus contaminations recorded worldwide exceeded on Sunday millions, and the pandemic continues to ravage entire economic sectors, especially tourism.
Posted on August 2 2020 at 20 h 22
France Media Agency
The latest restriction measure, Melbourne, Australia’s second largest city, has been placed under curfew for six weeks.
Since the outbreak of the disease in China was reported in December, at least 15 0 11 763 COVID contamination case – 19 were officially registered, according to a count made by AFP on Sunday at 24 h 40 GMT from official sources.
These cases include 677 941 death.
The most numerous contaminations are in the United States (4 472 693), Brazil (2 723 677) and India (1 733 723).
Argentina passed 154
on Sunday 00 case, indicated in the evening on Ministry of Health, which announced that social gatherings would be banned nationwide from Monday.
In terms of deaths, the most heavily affected countries are the United States (104 793), Brasil (94 104) and Mexico (47 320).
The pace of the pandemic continues to accelerate, with a million additional cases detected worldwide in less than four days. And the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Saturday that the pandemic would likely be “very long.”
After weeks of containment in the spring which seemed to have reduced the epidemic, the summer promises to be catastrophic for major tourist destinations.
” Ghost town ”
The pandemic, which is plunging the world economy into an unprecedented recession, weighs heavily on tourism, whose losses are already estimated at 200 billion dollars for the first part of the year, according to the World Tourism Organization.
So Montreal, which usually attracts around 011 million tourists per year, of which 80% coming from outside Quebec, this summer looks like a “ghost town”, laments Nadia Bilodeau, manager of a restaurant, in the middle of her deserted terrace.
Deprived of foreign visitors, of its Formula 1 Grand Prix or of its world famous festivals, the Quebec metropolis is trying to reinvent itself to save the summer, but the damage is already considerable.
With half of the some 9000 dead from COVID – 18 in Canada, Montreal and its suburbs have been severely tested. The consequence is the cancellation of all major cultural events, which attract hundreds of thousands of visitors every summer, such as jazz festivals and FrancoFolies, the largest of their kind in the world.
“Terrible impact”
In the Mediterranean, the tourist disaster is also present.
In Ibiza, in the Spanish Balearic Archipelago, tourists and locals alike enjoy unprecedented calm on this island usually popular with “clubbers” and DJs from all over the world.
But for others, “the impact of the pandemic has been terrible, it hit the island's economy for a simple reason: 90% of GDP depends on tourism ”, explains to AFP Vicent Torres Guasch, president of the local authority of the Island Council of Ibiza.
The quarantine imposed since 27 July by the United Kingdom for tourists arriving from Spain faced with the rebound in contagions in this country may nip in the bud the recovery that began a few weeks earlier. And this even if the archipelago is very little affected by the pandemic.
The United Kingdom is not the only European country to impose measures on travelers. Belgium on Saturday banned “non-essential travel” to many parts of Europe.
This list includes the Spanish regions of Navarre and Aragon, the cities of Barcelona and Lérida, the Swiss cantons of Vaud, Valais and Geneva, the French department of Mayenne, the British city of Leicester and the Bulgarian and Romanian regions.
Travel to these zones is “not authorized”, and quarantine and screening are compulsory for travelers from these zones returning to Belgium.
The Belgian decision aroused strong criticism in the Swiss cantons concerned. This is “incomprehensible,” Vaud Economy Minister Philippe Leuba told ATS, hoping for a quick reaction from Bern.
In the United States, restaurants are in the front line. “We were the first industry to shut down and we will be the last to recover,” Sean Kennedy, Association vice president of public relations, told AFP.
According to the specialized site Yelp, on the date of 08 July, over 26 000 restaurants had closed across the country, including 47% (15 770) definitively.
“Lives at stake”
Faced with a rebound in infections, Australia announced a curfew on Sunday in Melbourne, the country's second city, whose residents will no longer be allowed to go out more than three kilometers from their homes.
Despite a lockdown introduced in early July, Melbourne continued to register hundreds of new cases daily. The local authorities therefore decided to put in place a curfew of 19 a.m. to 5 a.m. for the next six weeks.
“The time for laxity is over, the time for warnings is over,” said Daniel Andrews, Premier of the State of Victoria. “If you are not home when you should be there, if you have the virus and go about your normal life, steadfastness will apply. There are lives at stake. ”
In Venezuela, President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday ordered a strict quarantine throughout the country, when the number of recorded contaminations has just exceeded 20 00.
Venezuela had been subject to a work-study regime since June: certain regions were under strict quarantine for a week, followed by a week of “flexibilisation” where certain essential economic activities could resume.