Britain has advised against all but essential travel to Spain while Germany warned its citizens Tuesday to avoid the country’s worst-affected regions as Spain registers a new rise in coronavirus cases that further threatens to undermine its tourism-heavy economy.

Britain’s effective ban on travel to Spain following an upswing in coronavirus cases in that country’s northeast on Tuesday hammered home the lack of a comprehensive, continent-wide approach to suppressing the virus and giving hard-hit, tourism-reliant economies a chance to rebound.

The U.K. government’s recommendation against all but essential travel to the whole of Spain means that all travelers arriving in Britain from that country will have to undergo a 14-day quarantine.

The move not only dashed British holidaymakers’ hopes for a getaway this summer, but also fanned renewed uncertainty within Europe’s tourism industry over how to plan ahead amid authorities’ responses to new COVID-19 outbreaks.

Indicative of this were decisions by holiday companies TUI UK and Jet2 to suspend flights to Spain, which is traditionally the most popular summer destination for British vacationers.

“The U.K. government must work closely with the travel industry as this level of uncertainty and confusion is damaging for business and disappointing for those looking forward to a well-deserved break,” TUI UK said in a statement.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday defended the decision, saying it was his government’s duty to protect the U.K. from a fresh coronavirus spike.

“Let’s be absolutely clear about what’s happening in Europe, amongst some of our European friends. I’m afraid you are starting to see in some places the signs of a second wave of the pandemic,” Johnson said.

“I’m afraid if we do see signs of a second wave in other countries, it is really our job, our duty, to act swiftly and decisively.”

Johnson added that there could be further changes to travel advice down the line affecting all of Europe.

The U.K. has the highest official coronavirus death toll in Europe with more than 45,000 deaths. One of the reasons cited for that is that many travelers brought the virus back during the February school break after skiing trips in France, Italy and Spain.

Professor Keith Neal, an epidemiologist at the University of Nottingham said it makes sense to advise against travel to Spain amid the summer holiday season.

“Some people have criticized the lack of notice but with cases rising any delay would only increase cases in the U.K,” Neal said.

But Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called the new recommendation “a mistake,” saying that the upsurge in new COVID-19 cases is only focused in the regions of Catalonia and Aragon and is much less severe than the number of cases reported in the U.K. itself.

Sanchez spoke as figures were released showing that his country wiped out more than a million jobs in the second quarter of this year.

Spain’s official statistics agency INE said on Tuesday that most of the 1.07 million lost jobs were in the service sector, with the worst-hit areas being Catalonia, Andalusia and Madrid.

Spain insists coronavirus ‘under control’ as travel restrictions hit tourism

Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Ayala tried to strike a conciliatory tone, saying that Madrid is trying to get the British government to concentrate on the scientific data since the outbreaks are contained in specific areas within Spain, while coronavirus infection rates on the country’s vacation islands are much lower than the U.K.

Spain is still in talks with the British government, “trying to find a solution which meets epidemiological criteria,” Ayala told a press conference in Athens during an official visit to Greece Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Madrid’s regional government on Tuesday made the use of face masks mandatory in all public areas and limited the number of people that can gather in one place as part of a drive to curb new coronavirus outbreaks.

Regional government head Isabel Díaz Ayuso said that no more than 10 people can be present at private gatherings, while nightlife venues must close their doors at 1 a.m. – early by Spanish standards.

Díaz Ayuso said an information campaign will focus on young people, who are largely blamed for spreading the coronavirus through their social life. She said young people “have it in their hands to reverse the trend.”

Britain’s travel advice comes on the heels of similar decisions by other European governments, including Norway, which ordered a 10-day quarantine for people returning from the entire Iberian peninsula, and France, which urged its citizens not to visit Catalonia.

German authorities didn’t follow the U.K.’s route on Spain but did advise against travel to Catalonia and two other Spanish regions in light of rising coronavirus infections.

A note posted by the foreign ministry on Tuesday advises against “nonessential tourist travel” to Catalonia, its western neighbor, Aragón, and Navarra in northern Spain. It cites a rise in infection figures and “local closures.”

Meanwhile, Germany’s national disease control center appealed to its own citizens to keep to distancing, hygiene and mask-wearing rules and halt an upturn in new coronavirus infections.

Lothar Wieler, the head of the Robert Koch Institute, said developments over the past two weeks are “really very worrying.”

Wieler pointed to studies indicating that people have become less concerned about COVID-19 and less accepting of virus control rules.

Asked whether Germany is seeing the beginning of a second coronavirus wave, Wieler replied: “We don’t know if this is the beginning of a second wave, but of course it could be. It would begin with rising figures … if we all keep to these rules, I am still optimistic that we can prevent this.”

(AP)

Cameroon has bowed to pressure from rights groups and ordered investigations into the management of the COVID-19 solidarity fund contributed to by civilians. The rights groups said most of the $40 million cash and material had been embezzled. An outcry was sparked after rights groups said 4,000 bags of rice donated to COVID-19 patients were illegally sold.

About two dozen people are this Monday morning at the Messassi government hospital in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde for consultations. Among them is 27-year- old Ernestine Sahmo who is visiting for her weekly diabetes control. Sahmo says she and other patients are surprised at the absence of COVID-19 prevention kits at the hospital.

 “Most of the time you go there and there is no water. You just find a bucket being placed there without any water in it and at times too you don’t even meet soap,” she said.

The hospital officials declined to comment on the absence of soap to wash hands. But the government of Cameroon said enough thermometers, soap, disinfectants, hand sanitizers, face masks, medicines and sufficient quantities of water were distributed all over the country.

 The government said it used money contributed to a COVID-19 solidarity fund to buy the COVID kits. Cameroon president Paul Biya contribited $ 1.8 million to the fund.

 Other contributions were received from civilians, companies, minister, lawmakers and senior sate functionaries.   

 Cameroon also received assistance to fight COVID-19 from foreign governments. The central African state said it received $226 million in emergency funding from the International Monetary Fund.

 Other people contributed food with a local company handing to the government huge quantities of rice.

 Apande Fadimatou of the NGO “Health fo All” says the government should give an account of how much it received and how much it spent. Fadimatou says some of the medicines the government claims it purchased have not been seen. She says she believes some money, food and nonfood items have been diverted.

She says she is surprised that even for the sake of governance and to respect Cameroon public management principles, an audit has not been conducted on the COVID-19 solidarity fund ordered by Cameroon president Paul Biya. She says the government should give the right information to civilians if it ordered the 4,000 bags of rice weighing 50 kilograms each and some COVID-19 protective materials donated by the people to be sold because it needed money to buy COVID-19 rapid test kits as some people claim.

Cameroon health minister Manaouda Malachie says neither the funds nor the goods had been diverted.

He says the ministry of health with the ministries of territorial administration, finance and trade made sure food items were distributed to all hospitals with COVID-19 patients. He says some food was given to Cameroon’s 10 regional governors to distribute to families and communities hardest hit by COVID-19.

Manaouda says face masks, hand sanitizers, soap and buckets were shared to civilians, and protective kits for hospital staff members distributed in hospitals. He says independent control teams and solicitors were invited to follow up the process and render accounts in case there is need. 

Manouda said the government had spent more than $40 million from the fund and from government contributions since March when the first case of COVID-19 was reported. He did not state how much has been contributed.

 Manouda said following requests by rights groups and civilians, Cameroon prime minister Joseph Dion Ngute has ordered an investigation into how the funds and material were used.

 In July, Human Rights Watch asked Cameroon to disburse funds to support health care facilities responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and investigate any missing funds.

Source: VOA

Nations in Asia imposed new restrictions on Monday and an abrupt British quarantine on travellers from Spain threw Europe’s summer reopening into disarray, as the world confronted the prospect of a second wave of COVID-19 infections.

Surges were reported in a number of countries previously singled out as places where the virus was under control.

Australia recorded a record daily rise. Vietnam locked down the city of Danang, forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of visitors. Mainland China confirmed the most new locally transmitted cases since early March. Papua New Guinea shut its borders.

Hong Kong banned gatherings of more than two people, closed down restaurant dining and introduced mandatory face masks in public places, including outdoors, fearing a possible third wave there.

Just weeks after European countries trumpeted the reopening of tourism, a surge in infections in Spain prompted Britain to order all travellers from there to quarantine for two weeks, torpedoing the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of people.

The World Health Organization said travel restrictions could not be the answer for the long term, and countries had to do more to halt the spread inside their borders by adopting proven strategies such as social distancing and the wearing of masks.

“It is going to be almost impossible for individual countries to keep their borders shut for the foreseeable future.

Economies have to open up, people have to work, trade has to resume,” WHO emergencies programme director Mike Ryan said.

“What is clear is pressure on the virus pushes the numbers down. Release that pressure and cases creep back up.”

Not like before

Officials in some of the European and Asian countries where the virus is again spreading say new outbreaks will not be as bad as the original waves that hit earlier this year, and can be contained with local measures rather than nationwide shutdowns.

But countries that have suffered extreme economic hardship from months of lockdowns are also determined not to let the virus get out of control again, even if that means reversing the path to reopening.

Europe has yet to lift bans on travellers from many countries, including the United States, where the average number of daily new infections has soared since mid-June and is now above 60,000.

Experts fear France faces second wave in September

Britain’s announcement of the return of quarantine for Spain was likely to torpedo the revival of airlines and tourism businesses across the continent, which had thought they had survived their biggest crisis in living memory.

Britain accounts for more than 20% of foreign visitors to Spain, where tourism represents 12% of the economy.

A British junior health minister said more European countries could end up on the “red list” if infections surge.

“If we see the rates going up, we would have to take action because we cannot take the risk of coronavirus being spread again across the UK,” Helen Whately told Sky News when asked if Germany or France might be next after Spain.

In China, which managed to squelch local transmission through firm lockdowns after the virus first emerged in the central city of Wuhan late last year, the new surge has been driven by fresh infections in the far western region of Xinjiang.

In the northeast, Liaoning province reported a fifth straight day of new infections and Jilin province reported two new cases, its first since late May.

Australian authorities who have imposed a six-week lockdown in parts of the southeastern state of Victoria said it could last longer after the country’s highest daily increase in infections.

“The tragedy of COVID-19 is that we know, with the number of new infections that we have seen today, that there will be many further deaths in the days ahead,” Australian Deputy Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd told reporters.

In Japan, the government said it would urge business leaders to ramp up anti-virus measures such as staggered shifts, and aimed to see rates of telecommuting return to levels achieved during an earlier state of emergency.

“At one point, commuter numbers were down by 70 to 80%, but now it’s only about 30%,” Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said late on Sunday. “We really don’t want to backtrack on this, so we have to explore new ways of working and keep telecommuting high.”

Vietnam is evacuating 80,000 people, mostly local tourists, from the central city of Danang after three residents tested positive at the weekend. Until Saturday, the country had reported no community infections since April.

North Korean state media reported on the weekend that the border town of Kaesong was in lockdown after a person who defected to South Korea three years ago returned this month with symptoms of COVID-19. If confirmed, it would be the first case officially acknowledged by Pyongyang.

Papua New Guinea halted entry for travellers from Monday, except those arriving by air, as it tightens curbs against infections that have more than doubled over the past week.

(REUTERS)