PARIS – Officials say the Paris region may be heading for a new closure, as new variants of the intensive care units fill up and limited vaccine supplies are deployed.
Special medical planes sent patients from the Paris area to less saturated regions over the weekend.
“If we have to lock up, we will do it,” the head of the national health agency, Jerome Salomon, said on BFM television on Sunday. “The situation is complicated, tense and deteriorating in the Paris region.”
Salomon admits that a nationwide evening clock at 18:00 in some regions was not enough to prevent an increase in cases, especially of the variant first identified in Britain.
The French government has been relying on evening clocks for months – along with the long-term closure of restaurants and other businesses – to try to avoid an expensive new lockdown. But localized outbreaks raise questions about the government’s virus-fighting strategy.
Salomon says France has more people in intensive care for COVID-19 and other ailments – about 6,300 – than the total number of ICU beds that had the pandemic.
France reported 90,315 virus-related deaths, among the world’s highest death toll.
___
THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:
– A year after the first shutdown of the coronavirus, it became more difficult to obtain public records in many U.S. states and cities. Some governors of the country regularly block access to public records, to keep the public in the dark about important decisions regarding the coronavirus pandemic. And since state legislators are taking direct legal action, most people are no longer allowed to observe in their rooms, and some still do not allow people to testify remotely during committee hearings where legislation is formed. Educators helped millions of students get online for distance education, but a year into the pandemic, millions of others remain without Internet access due to financial barriers and logistical problems. Many Africans reconsider large, plentiful weddings amid the economic devastation of the pandemic, a major change on a continent where weddings are sometimes seen as the key to capturing the relations between communities.
__
Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus- vaccination and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
___
THIS HAPPENS DIFFERENTLY:
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser says he does not understand why some people refuse a vaccine that has been proven to be safe and effective against COVID-19.
Dr Anthony Fauci said: ‘I just can not understand what the reason is if you have a vaccine that is 94 to 95% effective and it is very safe. I just do not understand it. ”
Fauci commented on NBC’s “Meet the Press” after being asked to address the issue of vaccine hesitation. Polls show racial and political divisions, with black Americans and supporters of former President Donald Trump expressing more skepticism about the vaccines.
The issue of vaccination is important because most Americans need to be vaccinated to defeat the virus.
According to Fauci, vaccines have saved the US from smallpox, polio, measles and other diseases.
He said: “We must loosen the political conviction of common sense, the non-broad things about public health.”
___
BELGRADE, Serbia – Hundreds of musicians and others affected by antivirus measures have gathered in central Belgrade to push for the weekend’s closure of all non-essential businesses aimed at combating growing infections.
The crowd gathered outside the Serbian parliament building on Sunday, with banners reading: “Let’s work!” or “We do not accept life without music.” They demanded more help from the state after a year of crisis that left many without income.
Authorities banned all concerts and only opened grocery stores, gas stations and pharmacies over the weekend as they struggled to get more than 4,000 new infections daily.
Doctors warned that hospitals were filling up and insisted on strict closure, but authorities were reluctant to close the economy. Premier Ana Brnabic says further measures are needed, but no details are known immediately.
Officials hope that continuous vaccination will also help bring the outbreak under control. Serbia has vaccinated 1.2 million people with at least one dose of China’s Sinopharm vaccine, Pfizer-BioNTech, Russian Sputnik V and Astra-Zeneca. More than 700,000 people in the country of 7 million received both doses.
___
LJUBLJANA, Slovenia – Slovenia commemorates approximately 4,000 victims of COVID-19 in the Alpine country with a ceremony commemorating the first recorded death in the coronavirus pandemic.
Top officials and religious community leaders gathered at a cemetery in the capital, Ljubljana, on Sunday to plant a willow tree and express sympathy for the families of the people who died after contracting the coronavirus.
Authorities said the vast majority of deaths were recorded among the elderly and residents of the care home.
The country of about 2 million people has recorded more than 200,000 coronavirus infections. Slovenia has a curfew in place along with a ban on gatherings and other antivirus measures.
___
BERLIN – A German airline says it was offering extra flights to Mallorca during Easter after a German travel warning for the Spanish island was lifted, causing a huge increase in bookings.
The Robert Koch Institute in Germany’s disease control center said on Friday that it was removing parts of Spain – including the Balearic Islands – from its list of “risk areas” in force on Sunday. People arriving from such areas in Germany should go into quarantine.
Germany-based travel operator TUI said on Friday that it would increase the start of flights from some German airports to Mallorca by six days until March 21.
Lufthansa’s budget airline, Eurowings, said on Sunday that many flights were booked within hours of the announcement. It said it was expanding its hitherto limited program of services to Mallorca by adding another 300 flights over Easter. Passengers to Mallorca need a negative coronavirus test. The German Ministry of Foreign Affairs still advises, although it no longer warns, against non-important tourist travel there.
Germany’s own exclusion will largely remain in place until at least March 28, and the prospects for further easing are uncertain as infections escalate again. Hotels in Germany have not been allowed to accommodate tourists since early November.
___
ISLAMA BATH – Amid a third wave of coronavirus affecting Pakistan’s largest province, Punjab, and the northern part of the country, Pakistani health and administrative authorities have imposed a partial exclusion in the affected areas.
Punjab authorities have fined numerous wedding halls and restaurants for violating the restrictions imposed again to fight the virus.
Officials in the capital, Islamabad, have warned citizens to wear face masks and keep social distance in public.
Pakistan reported 605,200 cases, including 13,508 deaths.
___
DURHAM, NC – Duke University has issued a quarantine order for all of its undergraduate students that are in effect Saturday night due to a coronavirus outbreak caused by students attending recruiting parties, the school said.
The university said in a statement that all undergraduate students will be forced to stay in their place until at least March 21st. Suspension or dismissal from school are possible penalties for ‘flagrant or repeat offenders’.
In the past week, the school has reported more than 180 positive cases of coronavirus among students. There are another 200 students who have been exposed and ordered to quarantine.
The school said in the statement that the outbreak was mainly driven by students attending recruitment parties for selective life groups.
Duke said it would provide a policy update on Thursday.
___
LOS ANGELES – Coronavirus hospitalizations in California’s most populous province have slipped below 1,000 for the first time in four months.
The number of patients with COVID-19 in Los Angeles County hospitals was 979, the lowest since Nov. 23. There are 3,250 people hospitalized across the country, a drop of more than 85% since they peaked at about 22,000 in early January.
Business rates also remain low, and much of the state is preparing to lift some restrictions in the coming days.
Government officials announced Friday that 13 provinces on Sunday are eligible for limited capacity to open restaurants, movie theaters, gyms and museums.
On Monday, the state opened vaccinations for about 4.4 million people aged 16-64 with disabilities and certain health conditions, including severe obesity, type 2 diabetes, chronic stage 4 kidney disease or higher and Down syndrome.
___
ROME – The new Italian government believes it intends to vaccinate 80% of the population against COVID-19 by September.
Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s office on Saturday announced more goals of the national vaccination program, which has only recently begun to progress following delays in the delivery of vaccines and other delays in logistics.
Just under 2 million people in Italy – or about 3% of the population – have been fully vaccinated by Saturday.
On Monday, a large part of the country, including the region of Rome, Lazio, is placed under stricter restrictions on civilian movements outside the home. Hospitals are struggling with an increase in ICU admissions for COVID-19 patients. Daily new cases of confirmed infections have increased over the past twenty days, including Saturday, while the Ministry of Health reported 26,062 cases.
Italy has now picked up about 3.2 million cases in the pandemic. After Britain, Italy has the second highest death toll in Europe, with 101,881 deaths.
___
PHOENIX – Arizona reported 262 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday – the lowest one-day total since September at the trough between summer and winter surges.
The state has now recorded 823,094 cases and 16,546 deaths among the 27 newly reported 27 people. Hospitalizations for the disease dropped to 814, below the pandemic peak of 5,082 on January 11, according to the state’s coronavirus dashboard.
The state also reported fewer than 1,000 additional cases over three of the previous six days.
But the state Department of Health Services announced late Friday that it had discovered three cases of a rapidly spreading variant of the coronavirus first discovered in Brazil. It is unclear how widespread the variant is in Arizona, but studies suggest that vaccines are effective against it, the department said in a news release.
Gov. Doug Ducey also said Friday that Arizona could meet President Joe Biden’s goal of offering vaccinations to anyone who wants one by May, as long as the federal government provides enough vaccines.
___
WASHINGTON – Despite the coronavirus pandemic, commercial air travel appears to be on the rise.
The transportation safety administration said its agents selected more than 1.3 million passengers at the security checkpoints at the airport on Friday.
Spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said in a tweet that the last time it was so high was March 15, 2020 – about a year ago.
Public health officials have usually warned against commercial travel.
Farbstein included a reminder in her tweet, saying, “if you choose to fly, wear that mask!”
President Joe Biden marked Thursday’s first anniversary of the pandemic with a first-class speech to the country in which he said he would have enough coronavirus vaccine for all Americans by May 1st.