World emerging from lockdown in a fine balance of health, economy

AFP

Plastic spacing barriers and millions of masks appeared yesterday on the streets of Europe’s newly reopened cities, as France and Belgium emerged from lockdowns.

The Netherlands sent children back to school and Spain let people eat outdoors. All faced the delicate balance of trying to restart battered economies without fueling a second wave of coronavirus infections.

With yesterday’s partial reopening, the French did not have to carry forms allowing them to leave their homes. Crowds developed at some metro stations in Paris, one of France’s viral hot spots, but the city’s notorious traffic jams were absent and only about half the stores on the Champs-Elysees Avenue were open.

Hairdressers in the city practiced their new workflow over the weekend ahead of yesterday’s reopening. Walk-ins will be a thing of the past, said Brigitte L’Hoste, manager of the “Hair de Beaut” salon.

“The face of beauty will change, meaning clients won’t come here to relax. Clients will come because they need to,” said Aurelie Bollini, a beautician at the salon.

Roughly half of Spain’s 47 million people shifted into a softer version of the country’s strict confinement, beginning to socialize, shop in small stores and enjoy outdoor seating in restaurants and bars.

Its biggest cities of Madrid and Barcelona remained under lockdown as the country reported the lowest numbers of virus-related deaths and infections since March 17.

In Germany, gyms reopened in the most populous state, but authorities there and in France have said any backsliding in the daily number of infections could lead to new restrictions.

“We’re going to have to learn to live with the virus,” French Health Minister Olivier Veran said.

In South Korea, the government pushed back hard after a single nightclub customer was linked to 85 new infections. It halted the school re-openings that had been planned for this week and reimposing restrictions on nightclubs and bars. It is now trying to track down 5,500 people who had visited a popular Seoul entertainment district by checking credit-card transactions, mobile-phone records and security camera footage.

In the US, Trump administration officials spoke optimistically about a relatively quick rebound from the coronavirus pandemic — but then announced Vice President Mike Pence was “self-isolating” after an aide tested positive.

The director of the University of Washington institute that created a coronavirus model said moves by states to reopen businesses “will translate into more cases and deaths in 10 days from now.” Dr Christopher Murray said infections and deaths are going up more than expected in Illinois, Arizona, Florida and California.

In other parts of the world, many nations are still struggling.

India reported its biggest daily increase in cases yesterday as it prepared to resume train services to ease a lockdown that has hit migrant workers and their hungry families especially hard.

In Senegal, researchers were working to develop a prototype ventilator to treat COVID-patients that could cost a US$160 instead of tens of thousands of dollars.

While unemployed workers in developed nations are temporarily buoyed by government benefits, millions elsewhere are facing dire economic prospects.

In a Lebanese slum along a sewage-tainted river, Faiqqa Homsi feels her family is being pushed closer to the edge.

The coronavirus shutdown has cost her husband his job as a bus driver and upended her hopes of earning money selling juice.

“It is all closing in our face,” Homsi said.

Worldwide, 4 million people have been reported contracted with the coronavirus and more than 280,000 have died.