美联社
2020年10月24日,星期六,在伦敦威斯敏斯特大桥举行的冠状病毒反封锁抗议中,警方拘留了一名男子。(美联社照片/阿尔贝托·佩扎利)
芝加哥——周六,美国和欧洲许多地区确诊的冠状病毒感染继续飙升。在某些情况下,对政府为遏制这股潮流而实施的限制的愤怒也是如此。
根据约翰霍普金斯大学的数据,周六,俄克拉荷马州、伊利诺伊州、新墨西哥州和密歇根州等州宣布每日确诊病例创历史新高,一天前,全国每日报告感染病例超过83,000例。
密歇根首席医疗官Joneigh Khaldun博士说,“现在人们比以往任何时候都更加重视这一点。”在她所在的州,3338例新的新冠肺炎病例超过了1300例的旧记录。
德国当局本周末报告了创纪录的一天新增冠状病毒病例,尽管全球死亡人数超过110万人,但西班牙和意大利领导人仍在讨论如何控制死灰复燃的病毒,公众反对宵禁。
在意大利,随着确诊病例超过50万,官员们周六与地方当局进行了磋商,以确定可以实施哪些新的限制。
朱塞佩·孔戴总理表示,他不想像大流行开始时那样,再次将意大利置于严厉的封锁之下。在过去的几天里,一些州长下令在他们的地区实施通宵宵禁,以阻止人们晚上在酒吧和其他场所外聚集。
一次这样的宵禁激起了那不勒斯的愤怒,引发了抗议者与警察的暴力冲突。意大利媒体称,抗议者向警察投掷石块、碎瓷砖和烟雾弹,同时用催泪瓦斯还击。在欧洲其他地方,波兰华沙警方使用催泪瓦斯和胡椒喷雾驱散对新病毒限制感到愤怒的抗议者,反封锁示威者聚集在伦敦特拉法尔加广场。
内政部长露丝安娜·拉莫尔日周六称那不勒斯的抗议“不可接受”,并表示检察官正在调查。
根据卫生部的数据,周六意大利一天新增确诊感染病例接近2万例,比周五略有增加。该国确认的死亡人数在欧洲排名第二,仅次于英国,在又有151人死亡后上升至37,210人。
西班牙首相佩德罗·桑切斯计划周日上午在马德里会见内阁,为新的紧急状态做准备,这是自疫情爆发以来两次使用的策略。
第一次是在三月份,在全国范围内下令严格的家庭禁闭,关闭商店,并招募私营企业参与国家公共卫生斗争。第二项于两周前生效,重点是马德里地区的过境限制。
在德国,总理安格拉·默克尔再次敦促公民减少社会接触的次数,因为该国的感染率创下新高。
周六报告的14714例病例包括周五和周四的病例,因为周四国家疾病控制机构的数据中断了三个小时。又有49人死亡,使总死亡人数超过1万人。
总理在她的每周播客中说,“如果我们都服从(社交距离),我们将一起度过病毒带来的巨大挑战。”
其他欧洲国家收紧了限制,希望能应对自己不断上升的病例数。
斯洛文尼亚关闭了酒店、购物中心和其他非必要的商店,因为当局报告说,在这个200万人口的小国,每天新增感染和死亡人数创下历史新高。希腊公布了一项口罩要求,并强制要求雅典和其他被视为高风险地区实行宵禁。
根据哥伦比亚卫生部的数据,在南美洲,哥伦比亚成为周六确诊冠状病毒病例达到100万的八个国家。另外两个也在拉丁美洲:阿根廷和巴西,前者在周一达到了这个数字,后者有超过500万的确诊病例。
根据约翰·霍普金斯大学发表的新冠肺炎仪表板,在美国,这种病毒已经夺去了大约24万人的生命。美国周五报告的总病例数为83,757例,超过了7月16日报告的77,362例。
许多农村社区首当其冲。在田纳西州的哥伦比亚,莫里地区医疗中心周五表示,从周一开始,将暂停需要过夜两周的选择性外科手术。《每日先驱报》报道称,它正在治疗50名新冠肺炎住院患者,其中20人在医疗中心的26张床位的重症监护室。
莫里地区的首席医疗官马丁·邱晨说,小型家庭聚会已经成为这种疾病在医疗中心覆盖的六个县地区传播的新威胁。
“在我们的家里,我们都放松了警惕,”邱晨说。“你认为不在社交场合保持距离是安全的,于是你摘下了面具。这种疾病传播速度非常快。”
Europe, U.S. watch case totals grow, debate new restrictions
Police detain a man, during a coronavirus anti-lockdown protest on Westminster Bridge, in London, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
CHICAGO -- Confirmed coronavirus infections continued to soar Saturday in many parts of the U.S. and Europe. In some cases, so did anger over the restrictions governments put in place to try to stem the tide.
Oklahoma, Illinois, New Mexico and Michigan were among states announcing new record highs in daily confirmed cases Saturday, a day after a nationwide daily record of more than 83,000 reported infections, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, Michigan’s chief medical executive, said it’s “now more important than ever that people take this seriously.” The 3,338 new COVID-19 cases in her state topped the old record by more than 1,300.
German authorities reported a record one-day total of new coronavirus cases this weekend while leaders in Spain and Italy debated how to control the resurgent virus amid public pushback to curfews despite a global death toll topping 1.1 million people.
In Italy, officials huddled with regional authorities on Saturday to determine what new restrictions could be imposed as confirmed cases surpassed half a million.
Premier Giuseppe Conte has said he doesn’t want to put Italy under severe lockdown again, as he did at the pandemic’s start. In past days, several governors ordered overnight curfews in their regions to stop people from congregating at night outside bars and other venues.
One such curfew fueled anger in Naples, triggering a violent clash by protesters with police. Italian media said protesters hurled rocks, pieces of broken ceramic tiles and smoke bombs at police while they battled back with tear gas. Elsewhere in Europe, police in Warsaw, Poland, used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse protesters angry over new virus restrictions, and anti-lockdown demonstrators gathered in London's Trafalgar Square.
Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese on Saturday branded the Naples protests “unacceptable” and said prosecutors were investigating.
According to Health Ministry figures, Italy’s one-day new caseload of confirmed infections crept closer to 20,000 on Saturday, a slightly bigger daily increase than Friday. The nation’s confirmed death toll, second-highest in Europe after Britain’s, rose to 37,210 after 151 more deaths.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez plans to meet with his Cabinet Sunday morning in Madrid to prepare a new state of emergency, a strategy used twice since the start of the pandemic.
The first in March ordered strict home confinement across the nation, closed stores, and recruited private industry for the national public health fight. The second went into effect two weeks ago, focused on transit limits in the Madrid area.
In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel urged citizens again to reduce their number of social contacts as the nation recorded a new daily high for infections.
The 14,714 cases reported on Saturday includes cases from both Friday and Thursday because of a three-hour data outage at the country’s disease control agency Thursday. Forty-nine more people died, bringing the overall death toll past 10,000.
The chancellor said in her weekly podcast “if we all obey (to social distancing) we will all together survive this enormous challenge posed by the virus.”
Other European countries have tightened restrictions hoping to cope with their own rising case counts.
Slovenia closed down hotels, shopping malls and other non-essential shops as authorities reported a record high of both new daily infections and deaths in the small country of 2 million people. Greece unveiled a mask requirement and a mandatory nightly curfew for Athens and other areas deemed high risk.
In South America, Colombia became the eight country to reach 1 million confirmed coronavirus cases on Saturday, according to the Colombian Ministry of Health. Two of the others are also in Latin America: Argentina, which hit that mark on Monday, and Brazil, which has more than 5 million confirmed cases.
In the U.S., the virus has claimed about 240,000 lives, according to the COVID-19 Dashboard published by Johns Hopkins. The total U.S. caseload reported Friday was 83,757, topping the 77,362 cases reported on July 16.
Many rural communities are bearing the brunt. In Columbia, Tennessee, Maury Regional Medical Center said Friday it was suspending elective surgical procedures that require an overnight stay for two weeks, beginning on Monday. The Daily Herald reported that it was treating 50 COVID-19 inpatients, 20 of whom were in the medical center’s 26-bed intensive care unit.
Martin Chaney, Maury Regional’s chief medical officer, said small home gatherings have become the emerging threat through which the disease is being spread in the six-county region the medical center covers.
“In our homes, we all let our guard down,” Chaney said. “You think it is safe to not socially distance, and you take your masks off. That is spreading the disease very rapidly.”