In Paris, people aged 11 and over are required to wear masks in crowded areas, tourist hot spots (File)
Paris:
Face masks became mandatory in tourist hotspots in Paris on Monday amid warnings of an upsurge in coronavirus cases, as infections in the world‘s worst-affected country, the United States, surpassed five million .
The demand came as France and much of Western Europe were suffocated by a heat wave, with temperatures exceeding 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit).
The scorching heat brought crowds to the beaches this weekend despite health warnings about the risk of infection.
In Berlin, thousands of children returned to school on Monday after the summer break, wearing masks that are mandatory in common areas like schoolyards. Schools in some other German regions have also reopened, but with different rules on masks.
“No child has forgotten their masks this morning, so we see that everything is back to normal,” said Domenica Acri, headmistress of Carl Orff Primary School in Berlin.
In Pakistan, all restaurants and parks were allowed to reopen on Monday, along with theaters, cinemas and public transport, after the country saw a drop in new cases for several weeks.
“Everything except the second lockdown”
Parisians aged 11 and over are now required to wear masks in crowded areas and tourist hot spots.
These include the banks of the Seine and more than 100 streets in the French capital, including tourist destinations like Montmartre, where the Basilica of the Sacred Heart is located.
Several French cities have already introduced similar measures, as well as parts of Belgium, the Netherlands, Romania and Spain.
“All the indicators show that since mid-July the virus has again been circulating more actively in the (Parisian) region,” said a police statement this weekend.
The Parisians interviewed by AFP generally supported the decision on the masks.
“I think it’s a really good idea, maybe we should have done it earlier,” said Bertrand, 28, in the popular rue des Martyrs in central Paris.
“Since we do not understand enough about this disease, it is best to protect ourselves.”
The masks are “restrictive” but necessary “if we are to avoid a second wave in Paris,” said Marion, 24, wearing a bright green mask. “Everything except a second lockdown.”
Worldwide, nearly 20 million cases have been officially recorded.
The death toll has been at least 731,500 worldwide since the new coronavirus appeared in China last December, according to a current tally from official sources compiled by AFP.
The United States is by far the most affected country with nearly 163,000 deaths. On Sunday, it hit the extraordinary milestone of five million coronavirus cases, according to John Hopkins University.
President Donald Trump’s Democratic opponent in the presidential election, Joe Biden, tweeted that five million cases of coronavirus were “a number that baffles the mind and breaks the heart.”
“Unachievable, weak” relief
The numbers came as Trump was accused of flouting the constitution by unilaterally expanding a virus relief program.
The package – announced by Trump on Saturday after talks between Republican and Democratic lawmakers hit a wall – was “absurdly unconstitutional,” Senior Democrat Nancy Pelosi told CNN.
His fellow Democrat and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, appearing on ABC, dismissed Trump’s unilateral measures as “unachievable, weak and far too narrow.”
But as the world‘s largest economy still struggles to extricate itself from a huge hole, Democrats have appeared nervous over any legal challenge to a relief program they deem woefully inadequate.
The four executive orders Trump signed on Saturday at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club will, among other things, defer payroll taxes and provide temporary unemployment benefits.
The president was seen as keen to show himself taking decisive action ahead of a Nov. 3 election that could see him ousted from office, with polls showing a large majority of voters unhappy with his handling of the crisis.
A dark stage for Brazil
After the United States, Brazil has the most cases, and on Saturday it became the second country to kill 100,000.
President Jair Bolsonaro has played down the coronavirus from the start, calling it a “little flu”, questioning lockdowns ordered by some state governors and saying their economic impact could be “deadlier than the virus”.
Following the news of the final stage, the most watched Brazilian television channel, Globo, criticized Bolsonaro’s handling of the crisis, asking “Did the president of the republic do his duty?”
In Peru, indigenous peoples armed with spears and angry at what they see as the government’s neglect of their communities in the pandemic attacked a colony for oil workers in the Amazon, sparking a clash with the police who killed three people, the government said on Sunday.
In Spain, top soccer club Atletico Madrid reported two positive coronavirus tests on Sunday, just four days before facing Germany Leipzig for a place in the Champions League semi-finals.
It has not been revealed whether the two positive cases involved players or behind-the-scenes staff.
Atletico have said that UEFA as well as Spanish and Portuguese football and health authorities have been informed and that a new round of tests will be carried out on the squad and the support team.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
