Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday announced a new four-week lockdown in England, which will join several European countries in imposing the …
Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday announced a new four-week lockdown in England, which will join several European countries in imposing the measure for a second time since the coronavirus pandemic began, as Slovakia took a different tack and began testing its entire population. The list of countries on the continent re-implementing stringent new restrictions on people’s lives is fast expanding as Europe experiences a dizzying spike in Covid-19 cases, leading to widespread exasperation and sometimes violent protests. Just minutes after Johnson’s announcement, Portugal’s Prime Minister Antonio Costa announced a partial lockdown for his country, with 70 percent of the population going back into lockdown. Also on Saturday, Austria brought in a second lockdown of its own, while Greece declared a partial one. The new measures came just a day after France started its second lockdown and Belgium said it would tighten its measures. – ‘Time to take action’ – The novel coronavirus has killed at least 1,189,892 people and infected 45,650,850 since emerging late last year, according to an AFP tally. The United States, the hardest-hit country, passed nine million reported coronavirus cases on Friday, as infections spike just days before the country’s presidential election. President Donald Trump, running for re-election on November 3, again downplayed Covid-19’s threat on the campaign trail. « If you get it, you’re going to get better, and then you’re going to be immune, » said Trump, who was hospitalised over his own bout of coronavirus.
