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WORLD NEWS Tuesday 12 May 2020
As countries restart, WHO warns about lack of virus tracing

By LORI HINNANT and — because people aren't
NICK PERRY allowed to travel outside
Associated Press their provinces and few
PARIS (AP) — A top world flights from overseas.
health official Monday "Unfortunately this year's
warned that countries are business is lost already. It's
essentially driving blind in going to be catastrophic,"
reopening their economies said Manuel Domínguez,
without setting up strong manager at Seville's Doña
contact tracing to beat María Hotel.
back flare-ups of the coro- British Prime Minister Bo-
navirus. The warning came ris Johnson announced a
as France and Belgium modest easing of the coun-
emerged from lockdowns, try's lockdown but urged
the Netherlands sent chil- citizens not to squander the
dren back to school, and a progress made. Some peo-
number of U.S. states con- ple, however, were con-
tinued to lift their business fused as the government
restrictions. shifted its slogan from "Stay
Fears of infection spikes in at Home" to "Stay Alert."
places that have loosened 9th grade students listen to instructions at an elementary school in Prague, Czech Republic, Scotland, Wales and North-
up have been borne out in Monday, May 11, 2020. ern Ireland stuck with the
recent days in Germany, Associated Press old motto.
where new clusters were At the risk of more confu-
linked to three slaughter- few months." cal areas. Other countries with tight regulations and sion, the British govern-
houses; in Wuhan, the Chi- Other countries are far — and U.S. states — have pent-up demand as they ment did an about-face on
nese city where the crisis behind Germany. Brit- been vague about what reopened across much of masks Monday, telling peo-
started; and in South Ko- ain abandoned an initial would be enough to trigger the state, save for some ple to cover their mouth
rea, where one nightclub contact-tracing effort in another clampdown. hard-hit areas. The Fringe and nose in stores and on
customer was linked to 85 mid-March when the vi- The U.S. has seen 1.3 mil- Salon in Naples was al- buses and subways.
new cases. rus's rapid spread made it lion confirmed infections ready booked for the entire People in jobs that cannot
Authorities have warned impossible. Now it is recruit- and about 80,000 deaths, week, its capacity limited be done at home "should
that the scourge could ing 18,000 people to do the the most in the world by by the social-distancing be actively encouraged to
come back with a ven- legwork of tracking con- far, according to a tally by rules. go to work" this week, John-
geance without wide- tacts. Johns Hopkins University. "It's just pure chaos. Every- son said. He also set a goal
spread testing and tracing Britain and other coun- Worldwide, 4 million people body's excited about get- of June 1 to begin reopen-
of infected people's con- tries are also developing have been reported infect- ting their haircut," said own- ing schools and shops if Brit-
tacts. contact-tracing cellphone ed and more than 280,000 er Trish Boettcher. "People ain can control new infec-
Health officials in the U.S. apps that can show wheth- have died, over 150,000 of are just randomly calling tions. Johnson himself is the
will be watching closely in er someone has crossed them in Europe. Health ex- who are not our regular cli- only world leader to suffer
the coming days for any paths with an infected per- perts believe all those num- ents." a serious bout of COVID-19.
resurgence of the virus son. bers understate the true toll In South Korea, the gov- At London's Waterloo train
two weeks after states be- In the hardest-hit corner of of the outbreak. ernment clamped down station, not everyone was
gan gradually reopening, the U.S., contact tracers With Monday's partial re- again, halting school re- convinced.
and efforts to assemble in New York began online opening in France, c rowds openings planned for this "I am nervous about going
contact-tracing teams are training Monday, and Gov. formed at some Paris metro week and reimposing re- back, because I have a
underway there and in Eu- Andrew Cuomo said some stations, but the city's noto- strictions on nightclubs family and they have been
rope. upstate areas, including rious traffic jams were ab- and bars. It is trying to isolating since the start. I
The World Health Organiza- the Finger Lakes, could sent. Only half the stores on track down 5,500 patrons feel like I am now putting
tion's emergencies chief, ease their restrictions after the Champs-Elysees were of a Seoul nightlife district them at risk," said Peter
Dr. Michael Ryan, said Friday. open. through credit-card trans- Osu, 45, who was returning
that robust contact trac- The governor set a require- Parisian hairdressers actions, cellphone records to work at a construction
ing measures adopted by ment of 30 contact trac- planned to charge a fee and security footage. site.
Germany and South Korea ers per 100,000 residents for the disposable protec- Roughly half of Spain's 47 India reported its biggest
provide hope that those for areas to reopen. That tive gear they will have to million people shifted into daily increase in cases Mon-
countries can detect and translates to about 6,000 give customers. Walk-ins looser restrictions, begin- day even as it prepared to
stop virus clusters before workers statewide perform- will be a thing of the past, ning to socialize, shop in resume train service.
they get out of control. ing what he described as a said Brigitte L'Hoste, man- small stores and sit outdoors In South Africa, authorities
But he said the same is not daunting task. Cuomo said ager of the Hair de Beauté at restaurants. Its biggest in Cape Town and the sur-
true of other countries exit- contact tracing is "a logisti- salon. cities, Madrid and Barce- rounding province consid-
ing their lockdowns, declin- cal nightmare, never been "The face of beauty will lona, remained under lock- ered reimposing restrictions
ing to name specific coun- done before." change, meaning clients down. because the area has be-
tries. Contract tracing across the won't come here to relax. Spanish hotels reopened come a hotspot account-
"Shutting your eyes and rest of the U.S. is a patch- Clients will come because with precautions — but also ing for about half the coun-
trying to drive through this work of approaches and they need to," said Aurelie financial bleak prospects try's 200 virus deaths.q
blind is about as silly an readiness levels. Bollini, a beautician at the
equation as I've seen," In loosening up the coun- salon. "They will come and
Ryan said. "And I'm really try's lockdown, German au- aim at getting the maxi-
concerned that certain thorities have spelled out a mum done in the shortest
countries are setting them- specific level of infection time possible."
selves up for some seriously that could lead to the reim- Across the Atlantic, hair sa-
blind driving over the next position of restrictions in lo- lons in Florida contended linda.reijnders@cspnv.com