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HEALTH-VIRUS
Trump quarantines as virus situation worsens in Europe
WASHINGTON, Oct 2, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – US President Donald Trump went into
quarantine Thursday night after a potential Covid-19 exposure, as more
restrictions loomed in Europe in an attempt to contain the deadly pandemic.
Trump’s close White House aide Hope Hicks had tested positive earlier in
the day, and the president and first lady Melania Trump were awaiting the
results of their own tests, Trump tweeted.
“The First Lady and I are waiting for our test results,” he said on
Twitter. “In the meantime, we will begin our quarantine process!”
“You know I spend a lot of time with Hope, and so does the first lady,”
Trump had told Fox News earlier in the evening.
Hicks was on board Air Force One with the president as he traveled to
Cleveland, Ohio for the first presidential debate with his rival, Democrat
Joe Biden, on Tuesday.
And she also joined Trump on his trip to a campaign stop in Minnesota on
Wednesday.
The president routinely receives tests for Covid-19, though the exact
frequency is not clear.
– Restrictions in Europe –
Meanwhile French authorities warned that Paris could be put on maximum
alert to halt the spread of the virus, and Spain extended drastic
restrictions across its capital Madrid.
By 2000 GMT Thursday the pandemic had killed at least 1,019,267 people
around the world and infected over 34 million, according to an AFP tally
based on official sources.
French authorities said they may place Paris on maximum virus alert as soon
as Monday, potentially requiring all bars to close as the number of cases
surges.
“We’re in a phase where the situation is worsening,” Health Minister
Olivier Veran said.
Spain, fighting a second wave of the virus, also extended drastic
restrictions across its capital, despite fierce opposition from Madrid’s
regional authorities, and most other regions have agreed to tighten curbs in
areas of rapid contagion.
Madrid is struggling with a rate of 780 cases per 100,000 people, compared
with just 300 per 100,000 in the rest of Spain — which in itself is the
highest in the European Union.
In Britain, chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance told reporters
“things are definitely heading in the wrong direction” as the government
extended lockdowns to several towns in northern England, effectively putting
more than a quarter of the country under tighter coronavirus restrictions.
And the Slovak and Czech governments both decided to impose states of
emergency, starting Thursday and next Monday respectively, to allow them to
take quick decisions in the face of considerable upticks in infections and
deaths.
– Stadium crowds return –
In the sporting world, Italian football suffered a blow with the
postponement of Genoa’s weekend match against Torino because team and staff
members at the Ligurian club tested positive for the coronavirus.
Nevertheless, European football’s governing body, UEFA, said that it will
allow spectators back into matches in the Champions League and its other club
and international competitions “at a maximum of 30 percent” capacity.
In Switzerland, stadium crowds also returned for the first time since the
pandemic began, but Health Minister Alain Berset said the Alpine country was
entering a “delicate phase” of its battle against the virus.
“It’s the start of autumn, it is a bit colder outside and the coronavirus
continues to complicate our lives,” he said on Twitter.
In India, meanwhile, new research suggested that a small group of super-
spreaders was responsible for almost two-thirds of coronavirus cases in the
world’s second-most populous nation.
The study, published in the journal Science, found that eight percent of
all people carrying the virus were responsible for 60 percent of new
infections.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0949 hrs