Coronavirus: the state of the world facing the pandemic on Thursday, April 16

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While more than 2 million cases of the new coronavirus are officially declared in the world, Europe crossed this Thursday April 16 the threshold of 90,000 deaths, or more than 65% of deaths worldwide. The continent remains "in the eye of the storm" despite "encouraging signs" observed in some countries, said the European branch of the World Health Organization (WHO).

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• "Do not let your guard down"

Despite "  encouraging signs  ", the number of cases of Covid-19 has almost doubled in the last ten days in Europe, reaching nearly one million, said Thursday Hans Kluge, Director Europe of the World Health Organization . The agency therefore calls on European leaders to "  not let their guard down  " and to ensure that the epidemic is under control before the restrictions are lifted.

Since its appearance in China last December, the Covid-19 disease has infected more than two million people worldwide to date and has killed more than 137,000 people, including more than 90,000 in Europe alone, according to a counting carried out by Agence France-Presse from official sources. To curb the spread of the epidemic, more than 4.4 billion people in nearly 110 countries and territories, more than half of the world's population, are called or forced by their authorities to live confined.

• UK extends containment

Foreign Minister Dominic Raab, who deputizes for Prime Minister Boris Johnson who is still recovering, announced on Thursday that the containment measures decreed on March 23 will be extended for at least three weeks in the United Kingdom . The country has recorded 861 deaths in the past 24 hours, a slight increase from the previous day (+761 deaths). In total, the coronavirus killed 13,279 people in the country.

And although the epidemic is not yet under control, negotiations on the new relationship between the European Union and the United Kingdom after Brexit will resume next week, on April 20, their negotiators announced. The UK's exit from the EU did not prevent the first 150 Romanian workers wearing masks and after checking their temperature from entering British soil on Thursday. Objective: to save British farmers from a glaring shortage of labor. Five more flights are planned by June.

• Chilean writer Luis Sepulveda dies in Spain

If Spain, the second most bereaved European country after Italy (19,130 ​​dead) has just crossed the peak of the epidemic, the country has failed to save the Chilean writer Luis Sepulveda, who died on Thursday at 70 years of Covid-19. Author of the bestseller The old man who read romance novels , the first novel translated into French in 1992 and then into sixty languages, the writer had gone into exile in Spain after being imprisoned under the regime of the dictator Pinochet. Luis Sepulveda had been diagnosed positive in late February when he returned from literary meetings in Portugal.

After Spain, Denmark and Germany, Switzerland in turn announces its deconfinement plan. Medical offices, hairdressing and massage parlors, as well as beauty salons will be the first to be able to reopen from April 27. The compulsory school and the other stores should reopen on May 11, as will the markets, said the Federal Council. Secondary schools, vocational schools and universities will reopen from June 8.

But "  the transition from one stage to another will only take place if there is no significant increase in the cases of Covid-19,  " said the Federal Council in a statement. According to the latest official report available, the coronavirus epidemic killed 1,017 people in Switzerland and contaminated 26,732.

• Amazon closes its French sites

In France, the Amazon group finally decided to close its French sites after a court order ordering it to limit its delivery activity pending a risk assessment against the coronavirus. The reopening date is still "unknown", according to management. The decision concerns nearly 10,000 employees in France.

In addition, 240 European tourists, including a hundred French stranded on Greek soil for more than a month due to a pandemic, obtained authorization to cross Italy confined on Friday, aboard 110 motorhomes. These European nationals must leave Greece this Thursday evening aboard a ferry, destination Ancona in Italy before crossing Italy in a long convoy Friday to the border with France, where French nationals will be allowed to return to their homes.

For its part, the NGO Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) called on Europe to "  wake up  " in the face of "  health bombs  " constituted by migrant camps in Greece during the coronavirus era, and to transform "  liners cruise in reception centers for refugees  ”.

• The mask, a new barrier gesture

Poles are now obliged to cover their noses and mouths in public spaces, with a mask or scarf. Germany will “  recommend  ” the wearing of protective masks in public transport and in stores, without imposing it.

In the United States too, the country that pays the heaviest price, with 30,990 deaths for 639,644 cases, the wearing of a mask is under debate. The State of New York will thus issue a decree obliging its nearly 20 million inhabitants to cover their faces outside, in situations where respecting the regulatory distance is impossible, such as public transportation.

In Brazil , the Covid epidemic may have been largely underestimated due to a lack of tests. Scientists fear a massacre in this country of 210 million inhabitants, which today has 1,736 dead, and which has still not reached the peak of the epidemic. More than 300,000 cases have been officially registered, but the Covid-19 Brasil group of researchers estimates that this figure is actually 15 times higher.

• Japan strengthens measures, China reopens markets 

In Japan, the state of emergency has been extended to the whole country. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced this measure in order to fight more effectively against the spread of the new coronavirus, recommending residents to limit their movements as much as possible and encouraging certain businesses to close temporarily. Until then, the measure concerned only seven regions including the capital Tokyo, or 40% of the country's population.

Conversely, in China, the street markets have reopened in Wuhan, despite a sulphurous reputation which has earned them calls for closure from abroad, four months after the appearance of the Covid-19 in this city in the center of China.

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