Rio de Janeiro (AFP)
Latin America is still suffering the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic, with a new record of daily deaths in Brazil, unlike Europe where the borders continue to reopen gradually, as in Austria on Thursday.
The European Central Bank (ECB) should strengthen its arsenal of support for the economy on Thursday, going well beyond the emergency measures drawn in March, as the impact of the new coronavirus promises to be felt for several more years, between recession and explosion of public debt. On Wednesday, Germany announced a historic recovery plan of 130 billion euros over two years.
The new epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic, Brazil recorded 1,349 coronavirus deaths in 24 hours on Wednesday, a new record for this country, the most affected in Latin America. A curfew has been imposed in some twenty localities in the state of Bahia (northeast).
Brazil has already officially registered 32,548 deaths, which places the Latin American giant in fourth place worldwide for the dead, behind the United States - which remains by far the hardest hit country with 107,000 dead - the United Kingdom (39,728) and Italy (33,530).
- Mexico: 1,000 deaths per day-
Mexico, for its part, crossed the 1,000 death mark in 24 hours on Wednesday, for the first time since the start of the epidemic. The total balance exceeds 11,000 deaths there.
In total, the Covid-19 pandemic has killed more than 382,000 people on the planet since its appearance in December in China, according to a report established Wednesday by AFP from official sources.
In Chile, another South American country hit hard by the epidemic, the authorities decided to extend the confinement in Santiago for a fourth week.
In Europe, where the numbers are more and more reassuring, giving hope that the worst is over, life is gradually regaining its rights. Austria reopens its borders on Thursday, with the exception of that with Italy. Germany and Belgium plan to do the same on June 15.
Italy, where the tourism sector is vital, has outstripped everyone by reopening its borders to tourists as of Wednesday. "Benvenuti in Italia", the message was clear: "there is enthusiasm in the air", exclaimed the head of the Italian government Giuseppe Conte.
- "Put nature back in the center" -
In Rome, at the foot of the Trevi Fountain, a newlywed couple took advantage of the low crowds on Wednesday to pose. "You have to savor these moments," said the husband: "in Rome, it's rare!".
But the Italian city of Gorizia remains cut off from its Slovenian twin Nova Gorica, where a fence hastily installed in March to curb the pandemic, remains the bitter symbol of the return of the borders between the two countries: the inhabitants are reduced to exchange news on both sides of the fence.
If Slovenians can travel freely to Italy, Italians - whose country was an epicenter of the pandemic - are always persona non grata in Slovenia.
In the United Kingdom, Prince Charles, heir to the British crown, estimated Thursday "to have been lucky" to suffer only slightly from the new coronavirus, an experiment which made him even more "determined" to work to replace nature "at the center of everything we do and at the center of our economy".
- Controversy over hydroxychloroquine -
The 71-year-old eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II tested positive for the new coronavirus in March but suffered only mild symptoms. He recovered after being isolated for seven days, according to official guidelines.
Four European countries, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, decided to join their efforts to find a vaccine at a time when the controversy over the therapeutic properties of hydroxychloroquine has once again rebounded.
Taking this drug, shortly after being exposed to Covid-19, does not a priori prevent an infection, say researchers in the United States following a clinical trial.
What revive a debate, open almost since the beginning of the epidemic, on the alleged virtues of this drug derived from an antimalarial. Following a mea culpa from the journal The Lancet, which published a very critical study on hydroxychloroquine, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced Wednesday the resumption of clinical trials on this drug.
burx-thm / avz
© 2020 AFP