Europe continues restart as Brazil death toll hits 50,000
Brazil registered its 50,000th death from the coronavirus outbreak on Sunday, underlining Latin America’s desperate struggle to contain the disease, as Europe’s gradual emergence from lockdown was marked by Spain reopening its borders.
Brazil is the second worst-affected country behind the US, and the spread of the novel coronavirus is accelerating across Latin America, with Mexico, Peru and Chile also hard-hit as death tolls soar and healthcare facilities are pushed toward collapse.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has been fiercely criticized for comparing the virus to a “little flu,” argues the economic impact of shutdowns is often worse than the virus itself.
But Mexico City has delayed reopening markets, restaurants, malls, hotels and places of worship, with the country now recording over 20,000 COVID-19 deaths.
Highlighting the region’s woes, Peru passed 8,000 deaths on Sunday despite preparing to reopen shopping malls on Monday.
In contrast, primary and secondary school children will return to class in France on Monday, and cinemas and theaters will also reopen.
One cinema in Paris opened just after midnight to mark the occasion, with audiences cheering the opening credits.
On Sunday, traffic flowed again across the Spain-France border in a watershed moment for the millions of businesses and workers across Europe who have suffered from the economic downturn.
Clusters have also emerged in the Palestinian territories, Morocco and Iran, where officials have now registered more than 100 deaths a day for three days running.
COVID-19 has now killed more than 465,000 people and infected almost 9 million worldwide.
Although the spread has slowed in Europe, it remains the worst-affected continent, with more than 2.5 million cases.
Spain has been among Europe’s hardest-hit nations, but on Sunday it lifted a slew of restrictions in a bid to get its tourism industry back up and running.
As well as opening its land border with France, Spain also welcomed EU nationals, those from the passport-free Schengen zone and Britons at seaports and airports – without enforcing quarantine periods.
In the Netherlands, police clashed with protesters frustrated over the government’s coronavirus response and made dozens of arrests in the center of The Hague.
On Sunday, France celebrated its annual music festival marking the summer solstice, with bands playing in cafes, restaurants and on streets across the country.
In Germany, however, concert halls and other institutions still face an uncertain future, with social distancing rules forcing them to slash their events calendars and drastically reduce capacities.
Members of the Beijing Blue Sky Rescue(BSR) team conduct disinfection at the Yuegezhuang wholesale market in Beijing, capital of China, June 16, 2020. Beijing has disinfected 276 farm produce markets and closed 11 such underground and semi-underground markets as of 6 a.m. Tuesday to better curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, Chen Yankai, deputy director of the municipal market supervision bureau, told a press conference on Tuesday. A total of 33,173 catering service providers have also been disinfected, Chen added. (Xinhua/Chen Zhonghao)
