Authorities around the world yesterday turned to increasingly drastic measures to try to slow the spread of COVID-19 with lockdowns, curfews and travel restrictions spreading.
The worldwide outbreak has sickened more than 156,000 people and left more than 5,800 dead, with thousands of new cases confirmed each day.
Soldiers and police sealed the densely populated Philippine capital Manila from most domestic travelers in one of Southeast Asia’s most drastic containment measures.
Photo: Reuters
The move mirrored a lockdown Spain announced just hours earlier for its 46 million citizens.
In a nationally televised address on Saturday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez detailed the battery of exceptional measures put in place as part of a two-week state of emergency to fight a sharp rise in infections.
Later on Saturday, Spain’s government said that Sanchez’s wife had tested positive for the virus.
In a lockdown similar to the one already imposed in Italy, people would be allowed to leave their homes only to buy food and medicine, commute to work, go to hospitals and banks, or take trips related to the care of the young and the elderly.
All schools and universities were closed, along with restaurants, bars, hotels and other nonessential retail businesses.
Italians were spending their first weekend under lockdown, with only the odd jogger or dog-walker visible on pavements otherwise emptied in an attempt to contain Europe’s worst COVID-19 outbreak.
On Saturday evening Italian authorities said that 3,497 cases had been recorded in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 21,157.
The death toll stood at 1,441, up from 1,266 on Friday.
Vittorio Gregotti, an Italian architect who designed the stadium for the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics, died yesterday at the age of 92 after contracting the virus, Italian media said.
Spanish authorities said that the number of infections climbed past 6,250, half of them in the capital, Madrid. That represents a national increase of more than 1,500 cases in 24 hours.
The country reported a total of 193 deaths, up from 120.
Spain has the fifth-highest number of cases, behind China, Italy, Iran and South Korea.
Despite pleas for calm from authorities, shoppers packed supermarkets in Spain in the morning, but overall, the normally bustling streets of the country’s two biggest cities were noticeably quieter as the message sank in that social distancing is the only way to stop the pandemic.
School closures at all levels were extended in the Philippines, which has confirmed 140 cases, including 11 deaths.
In the Middle East, Muslim authorities announced that Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site, would be closed indefinitely due to concerns about the outbreak, with prayers continuing to be held on the sprawling esplanade outside.
Thousands of Muslims returning to Turkey from a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia were being taken into quarantine due to concerns about the spread of the coronavirus, Turkish officials said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trial on serious corruption charges, which was supposed to begin this week, was postponed for two months due to restrictions on public gatherings.
Greece said it would ban road and sea routes, as well as flights, to Albania and North Macedonia, and ban flights to and from Spain.
Paris followed other cities in shuttering major tourist attractions, and France announced the closing of all restaurants, cafes, theaters and nonessential shops starting yesterday.
Denmark closed its borders and halted passenger traffic to and from the country.
Poland planned to close is borders at midnight and deny all foreigners entry unless they lived in Poland or had personal ties there.
The Czech Republic and Slovakia took similar action.
Russia said that its borders with Norway and Poland would be closed to most foreigners from yesterday.
Jordan announced six new cases of COVID-19, including one from an American tourist coming from Egypt.
The Republic of the Congo has reported its first case of coronavirus, a 50-year-old French-Congolese man who arrived on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Paris on March 1.
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