Japan, Britain Extend COVID-19 Restrictions as other Countries Plan to Relax Them
By VOA News April 16, 2020
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe extended a state of emergency Thursday to cover the entire country to help avoid further spread of the coronavirus and to limit its impact on the world's third-largest economy.
The prime minister said the extended state of emergency would remain in effect until May 6, with the intent of reducing traffic during the Gold Week holiday season which begins in late April and extends into early May.
Abe initially declared a one-month state of emergency on April 7 in Tokyo and in six other of Japan's 47 regions, covering 44% of the country's population.
As signs showed the virus was spreading outside large cities into other areas of Japan, Abe extended the emergency after regional leaders and medical experts urged him to do so.
Confirmed cases in the country increased sharply in the last month to more than 8,600 cases, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics.
Abe also said the government was mulling $930 cash payments to every citizen to try to limit the economic damage.
In Britain, Foreign Minister Dominic Raab, who is standing in for Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he recuperates from the effects of COVID-19, announced Thursday the country's nationwide lockdown has been extended by at least three weeks.
"We have just come too far, we've lost too many loved ones, we've already sacrificed far too much to ease up now, especially when we are beginning to see the evidence that our efforts are starting to pay off," Raab told reporters.
The United Kingdom has the world's fifth-highest official death toll, after the United States, Italy, Spain and France, although British figures only include hospital deaths, meaning the actual number is likely much higher, as they probably are throughout much of the world.
The World Health Organization said Thursday it would issue guidelines to countries next week as to how they can ease restrictions that were imposed in response to the pandemic while containing the spread of the deadly virus.
The announcement from the organization's European Region came as a number of European countries said they would slowly start lifting restrictions following signs of improvement, despite the continued rise of confirmed cases and deaths worldwide.
"There is no fast way back to normal," warned the WHO's European Region Director Hans Kluge. "We (Europe) remain in the eye of the storm," and "it is imperative that we do not let down our guard."
Denmark, Italy, Germany and Spain are among the countries that have indicated they would begin to lift restrictions to allow residents to begin a return to normalcy.
The WHO guidelines will urge countries to maintain priorities such as controlling the spread of the virus, maintaining the capabilities of city health care systems and safeguarding at-risk segments of their populations.
Europe has been among the hardest-hit areas in the world, with the number of cases almost doubling over the past 10 days to nearly 1 million, and fatalities topping 80,000.
When and how people will emerge from stay-at-home orders, as well as the restarting of businesses around the world, is a huge question facing governments.
Leaders have expressed a desire to get their economies moving again, and along with health experts they have cautioned there is a need to not move too early and risk a spike in infections in places that have started to bring the virus under control.
Mexico announced Thursday that some areas of the country could resume regular activities as early as May 17, one of the first Latin American countries to disclose plans to reopen. A health ministry official said plans were underway for a phased reopening of the rest of the country on June 1.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel plans to allow some schools to reopen beginning May 4, following similar plans in other European countries. She said some shops could reopen next week.
In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country is not yet ready to loosen restrictions. He urged Canadians to be patient, saying they still "a number of weeks away."
U.S. President Donald Trump is among those who have been most vocal in pushing to restart the country's economy, which is the largest in the world. He is expected to announced Thursday new guidelines, though health officials have said dropping restrictions in early May would be too soon, and ultimately those decisions will be up to individual state governors.
Trump participated Thursday in a videoconference with other G-7 leaders to discuss a coordinated response to the pandemic.
The White House said in a statement the leaders agreed to continue "taking every necessary measure to ensure a strong and coordinated global response and the associated humanitarian and economic calamity, and to launch a strong and sustainable recovery."
Trump drew fresh criticism Wednesday from former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and U.S. billionaire Bill Gates about his decision to suspend funding for the WHO.
Carter issued a statement saying the WHO "is the only international organization capable of leading the effort to control this virus."
Gates, a major funder of the WHO, said the decision was "as dangerous as it sounds."
The United States is the world's largest contributor to the WHO, with its more than $400 million contribution in 2019, amounting to about 15% of the organization's budget.
Kluge, the head of the WHO's European operation, said his office had received some "commitments" from around the world after Trump's decision. He did not elaborate on the commitments but said, "We've been overwhelmed by the support of European countries."
Trump accused the Geneva-based organization of failing to obtain independent reports about the coronavirus originating from China's central city of Wuhan and relying instead on China's official reports. Beijing officials initially tried to downplay the dangers of the new strain of the coronavirus. Trump said the funding will be suspended pending an investigation into the WHO's handling of the outbreak.
The United States is now the worst-hit country, with more than 640,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Thursday, out of more than 2 million infected people worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
