European cities are empty. Washington doubts the conclusions of WHO experts that the origin of the coronavirus is not linked to the laboratory in Wuhan, while Germany and Britain are ready to begin a phased exit from the lockdown in March.
Meanwhile, Europe’s oldest inhabitant has fully recovered from Covid-19 on the eve of her 117th birthday. Get the latest news on the pandemic situation around the world in our daily review.
According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 107 million people worldwide have been infected with the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and approximately 2.3 million have died.
Germany plans to extend the lockdown until March 14. The issue will be discussed on Wednesday by Chancellor Angela Merkel and the heads of the 16 federal states. Daily infection statistics are gradually declining across the country, and regional authorities are asking Berlin to set a timetable for the gradual lifting of restrictions. However, scientific advisors warn that the situation is very fragile and there is no stable improvement yet.
The winter lockdown in Germany was more severe and longer than last year’s spring lockdown. Only now has the infection rate decreased slightly, but the authorities are waiting for stable indicators. One of the allowances that the government will discuss on Wednesday is the opening of hair salons on March 1 with very strict security measures. Angela Merkel also indicated that the reopening of schools and daycare centers is a priority, and that each state can develop its own system for returning children to their desks as soon as the infection rate shows a stable decline.
The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) is calling on the government to announce the date on which pubs will be allowed to reopen, otherwise many will be forced to close forever. Beer sales will fall by 56% in 2020, resulting in losses of £7.8 billion (nearly $11 billion). “Our industry cannot continue to survive in these conditions. We are calling on the government to clarify the situation and give us an answer as to when we will be able to fully reopen,” said BBPA chief Philip Whitehead.
British pubs claim to be on the verge of collapse. We explain quickly, simply, and clearly what happened, why it matters, and what happens next. The number of offers should remain the same: episodes. End of story: Advertising Podcasts A strict lockdown is still in effect on the territory of Great Britain. Yesterday, the government published a list of 33 countries from which people returning home will have to undergo quarantine in special hotels, rather than at home as before. Refusing to go to a hotel or attempting to violate the isolation conditions will result in fines of £10,000 and prison sentences of up to 10 years. British authorities say the situation with the spread of new strains of coronavirus and the unwillingness of much of the population to comply with government orders has forced them to take such extreme measures.
Meanwhile, the country’s prime minister, Boris Johnson, has promised to announce on February 22 any relaxations that may be introduced due to the acceleration of the vaccination campaign. Already, 12.6 million Britons (out of a population of about 66 million) have been vaccinated against the coronavirus. The majority of those vaccinated are older Britons and those in the most vulnerable groups. On Wednesday, an advertisement featuring 73-year-old singer Elton John and 87-year-old actor Michael Caine appeared on the website of the British National Health Service, urging the country’s citizens to get vaccinated. On Wednesday, the Royal Court Office announced that the first doses of the vaccine had been received by Prince Charles and his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla. Queen Elizabeth II, 94, and Prince Philip, 99, were vaccinated in January. Prince Charles is first in line to the British throne. He is 72 years old and had a mild case of Covid-19 last spring that did not require hospitalization.
Covid-19 has affected Europe’s oldest resident, Lucille Randon, who lives in Toulon, France. She learned of her illness in mid-January after a positive test. She will celebrate her 117th birthday on Thursday. The woman took religious vows in 1944 and became known as Sister Andre.
Sister Andre says she was not afraid of getting sick from Covid-19. She was asymptomatic and did not even realize at first that she had contracted the coronavirus. During her illness, she was isolated from other residents of the nursing home where she lives. She did not require medical attention and is now considered to be fully recovered. Sister Andre is blind and uses a wheelchair to get around. “She is very, very lucky,” David Tavella, a representative of the nursing home, told local media. When French journalists asked André’s sister if she was afraid of catching the coronavirus, she replied: “No, I wasn’t afraid because I’m not afraid of death. I’m happy to be here with you, but I wouldn’t mind going somewhere else – to my older brother and my grandparents. Sister Andre was born on February 11, 1904. She is not only the oldest resident of Europe, but also the second oldest person in the world in terms of longevity.
Greece – a country with a fragile economy and a heavy reliance on tourism – suffered colossal losses during the year of the pandemic. Greece will be under strict lockdown starting Thursday, with the most severe measures affecting Athens. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that the country has undoubtedly encountered the third wave of the coronavirus epidemic. Earlier, the head of the country’s health ministry made such an assumption, warning that there are almost no beds left in intensive care units in Greece.
World Health Organization (WHO) experts, who are in Wuhan to investigate the causes of the Covid-19 pandemic, have responded strongly to Washington, which once again expressed doubts about the Chinese authorities’ version. The U.S. statement came after WHO experts presented the initial results of their investigation. In particular, they have almost completely ruled out the possibility that the SARS-CoV-2 virus could have been cultivated in one of the Chinese laboratories. Washington doubts the transparency of the Chinese side’s actions and the reliability of the information provided to international experts.
WHO experts, together with representatives of the Chinese Ministry of Health, held a press conference yesterday to present the preliminary findings of the Commission’s work. One of the members of the WHO group, Peter Daszak, a specialist in the field of ecological diseases, responded by writing on his Twitter that it is not worth trusting the information from the American intelligence services, which under Trump began to lose touch with reality and made blatant mistakes in many aspects. He assured that the group was working meticulously. China did not immediately agree to let WHO experts in, and then they discussed the conditions of their work for a long time. According to the United States, this indicates that Beijing is not ready for open cooperation. In January, when the WHO mission had just arrived in China, the White House said it hoped for a rigorous and uncompromising investigation. Beijing urged Washington not to politicize the investigation, which was purely scientific.
On Wednesday, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is expected to explain to members of the European Parliament why the EU’s vaccination strategy has reached an impasse and how it will be overcome. The issue of the supply of the Oxford University and AstraZeneca vaccine, which has been approved for use in the European Union, has already caused serious diplomatic clashes between Britain and Brussels, as well as between individual countries within the European bloc. The vaccine manufacturer, AstraZeneca, admits that it is unable to meet its obligations to produce the planned quantities.
The upcoming Valentine’s Day, which is widely celebrated in many countries around the world, is causing concern for authorities. Police patrols will be stepped up almost everywhere to crack down on parties.
Some hotels in Brussels have converted their rooms into mini-restaurants for two. The service has been available for some time, and those who have tried it say that the service is provided with strict COVID-19 security measures in place, and the couple still gets the full feeling that they went on a real date. All similar rooms in the city are already booked for Valentine’s Day. Authorities in Thailand’s capital Bangkok are warning that there will be no weddings in the city on February 14 this year. Normally, this is the most popular day of the year for marriage registrations, with hundreds of couples registering across the city and most restaurants booked out. But now government institutions are closed and mass meetings are forbidden.