Virus resurgence forces countries to reimpose restrictions

PROMACHONAS, Greece – Countries around the world are reimposing lockdowns and implementing new health checks at their borders in an effort to curb a resurgence of the coronavirus before it spins even further out of control.

Starting Wednesday, all travellers arriving in Greece from a land border with Bulgaria were required to carry negative coronavirus test results issued in the previous 72 hours and translated into English. The new rules, which follow an increase in tourism-related COVID-19 cases, triggered an immediate drop in arrivals compared to recent days.

Residents of Australia’s second-largest city, Melbourne, were warned on Wednesday to comply with lockdown regulations or face tougher restrictions. Melbourne’s five million people and part of the city’s semi-rural surroundings are a week into a new, six-week lockdown to contain a new outbreak there.

“The time for warnings, the time for cutting people slack, is over,” Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews said. “Where we are is in a very serious and deadly position.”

The developments come with more than 13 million cases of coronavirus cases confirmed worldwide, and with over 578,000 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

The actual numbers are thought to be far higher due to a number of reasons including limited testing.

In Serbia, which has been hit hard by a spike in infections and anti-government protests, a government crisis team expanded a ban on gatherings of more than 10 people from Belgrade to encompass the entire country.

Masks were also made mandatory in public spaces where there is no opportunity for 1.5 metres (around five feet) of distancing, such as in lines to enter shops and bus stations.

Renewed restrictions took effect in Hong Kong on Wednesday, with public gatherings limited to four people, restaurants restricted to takeout after 6 p.m., and a one-week closure for gyms, karaoke bars, and selected other businesses. Masks were mandated on public transit for the first time, with the non-compliant being fined.

After a surge in daily infections beginning last month, Israel moved last week to reimpose restrictions, closing events spaces, live show venues, bars and clubs. It has imposed lockdowns on areas with high infection rates, which in some cases sparked protests from residents.

Officials warn that if case numbers don’t come down in the coming days, Israel will have no choice but to lock down the entire country again, as it did in the spring.

“I don’t see what other tools we have aside from a lockdown,” Israeli Health Minister Yuli Edelstein told the Israeli news site Ynet. “Unless there is a miracle.”

South Africa, Africa’s most-developed country, is already showing signs of being overwhelmed by the pandemic – an ominous outlook for the rest of the continent of 1.3 billion people.

A ban on alcohol sales and a night curfew have been reimposed this week to reduce the volume of trauma patients to hospitals that are struggling to cope with an influx of COVID-19 patients.

Alcohol-related emergencies at hospitals dropped by nearly 60 per cent when South Africa prohibited the sales of liquor in April and May. When that restriction was lifted in June, hospitals saw an immediate return to previous levels of trauma cases, especially on weekends, according to statistics from Health Minister Zwelini Mkhize.

One result was more economic pain in a country which already has a high unemployment rate of 30 per cent.

“This return to the booze ban is causing havoc to the restaurant business, and it’s causing people to lose jobs,” said Gerald Elliot, owner of a popular Johannesburg restaurant, Ba Pita, which he said closed as a result of the restrictions with a loss of 28 jobs. “You can look down our street and see several restaurants that are shut. It looks like they are closed permanently.”

In Spain, authorities in the northeastern Catalonia region made fresh attempts to stem the spread of new coronavirus outbreaks as health experts warned that more and better contact tracing is needed.

Since midnight Tuesday, 160,000 residents in and around the city of Lleida were forbidden to leave their homes unless it’s properly justified. The area is closed off, with police checkpoints outside every municipality. Bars and restaurants are only open for takeout or delivery.

In Hospitalet de Llobregat, a densely populated town on the outskirts of the regional capital, Barcelona, dozens of people lined up Tuesday at a local health centre to be tested for the virus, as infections have shot up from a few dozen to more than 200 in just over three days.

Starting Wednesday, three neighbourhoods are seeing more restrictions, including limits to the number of customers in shops and restaurants, while authorities are strongly urging people not to socialize.

Authorities in the English town of Blackburn also imposed new restrictions on social mingling amid what they say is a “rising tide” of new coronavirus cases.

Director of Public Health Dominic Harrison said that if infection numbers didn’t fall by July 27, officials would begin to reimpose lockdown measures such as the closing of shops and other businesses.

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said Wednesday the spread of the infections in the Japanese capital has escalated to levels tantamount to “issuing an alarm” and requested that residents and business owners step up their preventive measures.

However, even as new restrictions are imposed, steps were being taken to help restore a sense of normalcy.

On Tuesday night, Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko announced reopening the border with Russia and resuming the transport connection between the two countries “in the coming days.”

Travellers arriving in Russia starting Wednesday had to either provide coronavirus test results at the border or take a virus test within three days of arriving to the country. Those measures replace a mandatory two-week self-isolation for those arriving to Russia.

AP reporters around the world contributed to this report.

Costas Kantouris, Vanessa Gera And Rod McGuirk, The Associated Press