And so that was Easter, but world keeps a distance

AFP

The world celebrated Easter at a distance yesterday, with most churches closed and family gatherings canceled amid wide-ranging coronavirus lockdowns. Huge uncertainties loomed about the outlook not just for the next few weeks but for the months ahead.

Southern Europe and the United States, whose death toll is now the world’s highest, have been the recent focal points of the pandemic. But coronavirus hotspots have been shifting constantly and new concerns are rising in Japan, Turkey, the US Midwest and Britain.

St Peter’s Square at the Vatican, where tens of thousands would normally gather to hear Pope Francis deliver his “Urbi et Orbi” blessing was empty of crowds and flowers yesterday, ringed by police barricades. Pope Francis celebrated Easter Mass inside the largely empty St Peter’s Basilica, with the faithful watching on TV at home.

Similar scenes played out around the world. Some South Korean churches held Easter services online while Catholic bishops in New Zealand wrote a special pastoral letter to worshippers stuck at home.

In Europe, countries used roadblocks, fines, gentle persuasion and other tactics to keep people from traveling over an Easter weekend that was basking in beautiful spring weather. As the hardest-hit countries like Italy and Spain see reduced daily infections with and deaths from the virus, economic pressures are mounting to loosen the tight restrictions on daily life put in place to fight off the pandemic.

Germany’s president Frank-Walter Steinmeier told his compatriots in a rare televised address on Saturday night: “Every one of you has changed his life radically; every one of you has saved human lives in doing so and is saving more every day.” When and how weeks-long restrictions on public life are loosened is something that “all of us have ... in our hands, with our patience and our discipline,” Steinmeier said.

Some European nations are moving toward tentative moves to loosen their lockdowns, with Spain set to allow workers in some nonessential industries to return to factories and construction sites today.

But much uncertainty remains. Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said in an open letter to Austrians that the virus will “be with us for months yet.”

Asked by Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper whether people should book summer holidays now, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen replied: “I would advise waiting with such plans.”

“No one can make reliable forecasts for July and August at the moment,” she said.

For some people, the novel coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for others, especially older people and the infirm, it can cause severe symptoms like pneumonia and lead to death.

More than 1.8 million infections have been reported and 110,000 people have died worldwide yesterday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The figures certainly understate the true size and toll of the pandemic, due to limited testing, uneven counting of the dead and some governments’ desire to play down the reality of their situation.

While some nations think about a pandemic exit strategy, others are dealing with alarming rises in infections or deaths.

Turkey took many by surprise in imposing a partial weekend lockdown after previously taking a more relaxed approach than its European and Mideast neighbors. The country previously imposed a curfew on those under 20 and over 65, exempting most of the workforce as Turkey sought to keep its beleaguered economy on track.

In Japan, emergency medical groups warned that Japanese health care facilities are getting stretched thin amid a surge in coronavirus patients. They said masks and surgical gowns were running short.

Britain’s death toll passed the 10,000 mark. Reported deaths surged 980 on Friday — exceeding even the peaks seen in hard-hit Italy and Spain — and were still high at 917 on Saturday, although data have suggested that the number of hospital admissions is leveling off. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the first major world leader to have COVID-19, was discharged from the hospital yesterday. His step forward came a day after Queen Elizabeth II released a recorded Easter message in which she said that the holiday was a time of “light overcoming darkness.”

In the US Midwest, pockets of contagion have alarmed leaders and led to stricter enforcement. Nearly 300 inmates at the Cook County Jail in Chicago have tested positive for the virus, and two have died. In Wisconsin, health officials expect to see an increase in cases after thousands of people went to the polls on Tuesday to vote in the state’s presidential primary.