ZCZC
BFF-21
HEALTH-VIRUS-WORLD,FACTS
Coronavirus: Latest global developments
PARIS, March 27, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Here are the latest developments in
the coronavirus crisis:
– New restrictions in Belgium, Poland –
Poland shuts kindergartens, sports facilities and more non-essential
shops and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki urges Poles to spend Easter at
home with their immediate families, but stops short of announcing
restrictions on movement and a full lockdown.
Belgium limits access to non-medical services such as hairdressers for
four weeks, and customers can only visit stores selling “non-essential” items
such as clothing and books by appointment.
Next week, the last before Easter, only primary schools will remain
open.
– Manila in lockdown –
The Philippines announces that more than 24 million people in and around
Manila will go into lockdown next week.
The tougher restrictions in the country’s economic heartland — which
accounts for about a fifth of the population — come as more contagious
variants of the virus fuel a resurgence in cases.
– Chile wrestles with rising infections –
Chile, a world leader in coronavirus vaccinations where nearly one in
three people have received a first dose, puts more than 80 percent of its
population of 19 million in lockdown.
With new virus variants, believed to be more contagious, spreading
across the continent, cases have been soaring in Chile despite its
vaccination drive.
– Kenya shuts schools, lockdowns Nairobi –
Kenya places Nairobi and nearby counties under partial lockdown and
closes schools and bars in those areas as a deadly third wave of Covid-19
grips the country.
President Uhuru Kenyatta warns the emergency measures are required to
curb the highest rates of coronavirus infection seen in Kenya since the
pandemic began a year ago.
– New daily death toll in Brazil –
Brazil set a new daily Covid-19 death toll record of 3,650 on Friday,
the health ministry says, as the pandemic spins out of control in Latin
America’s largest economy.
– Record new infections in Argentina –
Argentina registers nearly 13,000 new infections, the highest number in
more than two months as the government suspends flights arriving from Brazil,
Chile and Mexico.
– France toughens border checks –
French authorities step up checks at airports and motorways to enforce a
ban on movement between 19 different regions, including Paris, where the
situation is described as “critical”.
– More than 2.7 million dead –
The novel coronavirus has killed at least 2,768,431 people since the
outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from
official sources compiled by AFP.
The United States is the worst-affected country with 548,089 deaths
followed by Brazil with 307,112 fatalities, Mexico with 200,862, India with
161,240 and Britain with 126,515 deaths.
These figures are based on daily tolls provided by health authorities in
each country and exclude later re-evaluations by statistical organisations,
as has happened in Russia, Spain and Britain.
BSS/AFP/IJ/1921 hrs