Europe丨COVID-19 Global Outbreak Highlights(4.18~4.24)

2020-04-27 03:30:15 source: 欧洲时报


1. The British Prime Minister will Return to Work.


On 21st April, the British government reported that Boris Johnson had a phone call with the American president Donald Trump and told him that he would return to work soon, but so far, Boris Johnson hasn’t formally returned yet.


According to the announcement of the Prime Minister’s Office, Boris Johnson thanked the American President “for extending wonderful wishes to him when he was infected with COVID-19”. Both of them also reached a consensus on “the importance of concerted international actions against COVID-19”, and hoped to sign a trade agreement “as soon as possible”.

This week, Boris Johnson will also have a phone call with the Queen. This will be his first phone call with the Queen over these three weeks.

 

 

2. The EU Program for Supporting Economy with 540 Billion Euros Was Approved at the EU Summit.


27 heads of states and governments of the European Union (EU) held a video conference on 23rd April and approved the EU program for supporting economy with 540 billion euros, in order to help EU member states overcome their financial difficulties arising from COVID-19. This program will be implemented on 1st June.

This video conference started from the afternoon of 23rd April till night. The program for supporting economy with 540 billion euros, in fact, had been confirmed at the meeting of finance ministers of different states. The approval at this video conference was just a formalistic procedure. Thus, the video conference shouldn’t have lasted long. However, extremely great controversies were aroused concerning whether to introduce “coronabonds” (Eurobonds).


12312.png

Photo:Ian Langsdon/ dpa


3. The Unemployed Population will Exceed Three Million in Germany.


According to a report of Frankfurt General Newspaper, some economists pointed out after their analysis that the impacts of COVID-19 on German labor market were far more serious than expected. Today, the German Federal Institute for Labor Market and Employment published a pertinent research report and stated that the unemployed population might exceed three million in the next few months in Germany. In this March, the unemployed population reached 2,335,000 million. Meanwhile, about one million people will be forced to leave their original posts. It was pointed out in this research report that among the unemployed population, tens of thousands of people were part-time workers who weren’t granted the subsidies for their short-time work. In consideration that German economy has been gravely impacted, the experts forecast that the GDP might drop by 8.4% in Germany, and the year-on-year decline of 14.6% would be even witnessed in the GDP of the second quarter.

 

4. The Travel Restrictions will Be Gradually Eased in Austria.


According to a report of La Prensa, Kurz reported that the travel restrictions would be gradually eased in Austria, but in a short run, it was inappropriate for Austrians to travel without restrictions, and Austrians were recommended to domestically spend their holidays. The Austrian government will give priority to consider entering into bilateral agreements for open travel with the neighboring states where COVID-19 is well controlled, including Germany and Czech Republic. When interviewed by the journalists, Kurz also reported that Austria took rigorous measures against COVID-19 similar to those implemented in Wuhan, China and some Asian countries to successfully control the epidemic situation. This type of realistic, prudent and correct countermeasures against COVID-19 shall be widely recognized and followed by the international community.

 

5. Confirmed News! Italy will Be Repen Again from 4th May.


According to a report of Evening Post, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte made a post on the social network Facebook on 21st April and stated that from 4th May, Italy will gradually ease its restrictions upon residents, and before the end of this week, the Italian government will explain the detailed plan to people.


In his post, Giuseppe Conte wrote, “Now, many citizens have been wary of the control measures. Everyone hopes to greatly ease the restrictions and even cancel all regulatory measures to make all industries restore to the normal state as soon as possible. I wish I could say, 'Let's reopen everything, immediately', but such a decision would be irresponsible. It would make the (coronavirus) infection curve go up in an uncontrolled way and would cancel out all the efforts we have made so far.”

 

6. France Hasn’t Gone out of the Crisis.


On 19th April, it was the 34th day after isolation measures had been taken in France since the outbreak of COVID-19 in this country. On this day, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe made a speech and stated the issue about unblocking that French residents were the most concerned about for the time being. At the same time, he warned that even after unblocking, “we will have to learn to coexist with viruses”.


Edouard Philippe will submit the specific unblocking plan at the end of April and the parliament will hold a session to discuss about the plan. He emphasized that, even by 11th May, unblocking will be realized “step by step”.

 

7. Over 20% Unemployment Rate, Soaring Commodity Price and Great Shortage of Some Commodities in Spain


According to a report of El Economista, the International Monetary Fund forecast that COVID-19 has been the most serious economic crisis since the global economic depression. Spain is the world’s biggest affected state only next to Italy. This year, its economy deflates by 8%, which is folds higher than the deflation ratio in 2009 and 2012. Besides, the unemployment rate will be as high as 20.8%.


On the other hand, the great shortage of commodities under the epidemic situation has led to a price increase in some commodities.

 

8.ill Large-scale Vaccination Be Carried out in October?


A Swedish immunologist claimed that a type of vaccine-specific to COVID-19 has been developed, and it would be put into use once the trial succeeded. Martin Bachmann, a doctor of Bern University Hospital, hopes to perform necessary research and approval procedures as soon as possible. He even believes that large-scale vaccination can be carried out in Switzerland this October.

 

The Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products (Swissmedic) has confirmed the research of Bachmann who is studying active substances against SARS-CoV-2 and other researchers. As the spokesperson of Swissmedic, Lukas Jaggi reported, the research schedule is quite optimistic but hasn’t been confirmed. In view of the urgency of COVID-19, the approval procedure will only take a few weeks instead of several months. If all approval requirements are satisfied, the vaccination will be possible by the end of this year. The spokesperson of Swissmedic has verified that, in case of life-threatening critical illnesses like COVID-19, interim approval can be generally given before clinical research. However, the research must be approved as well. If we follow all requirements and standards, the approval will be sped up.

 

9. The 77th Venice International Film Festival will Be Held in September as Scheduled.

 

Impacted by COVID-19, Germany canceled the 2020 Munich Beer Festival which has been planned to be held from 19th September to 4th October. Spain canceled the traditional San Fermin Festival to be held in July. However, the 77th Venice International Film Festival will be held as scheduled in Italy. 


According to the reports on the websites of ANSA and Radioitalia, the sponsor of La Biennale di Venezia has officially announced that 2020 Venice International Film Festival (from 2nd to 12th September) and Festival Internazionale di Musica Contemporanea (from 25th September to 4th October) will be held as scheduled. In addition, the International Festival Drama scheduled to be held in June will be postponed to the period from 14th to 24th September. The Contemporary Dance Festival will be delayed and held from 13th to 25th October.

 

As President of Venice International Film Festival, Roberto Cicutto states that control measures will be taken, including playing a video at the same time in several screening rooms, and a number of audiences will be restricted. In addition, the Organizing Committee will draft a traffic plan for participants of the film festival. It is reported that Cate Blanchett, a famous female Hollywood star, will act as Chairman of the Review Board of Venice International Film Festival as scheduled. 


Cannes International Film Festival scheduled to be held in May was postponed. As Chairman of Venice International Film Festival, Roberto Cicutto reports that both parties have no plan for organizing an exhibition together, but this doesn’t exclude the likelihood of cooperation.


314421421421.png

Photo:Christian Charisius / dpa

 

10. The Mask Injunction Was Successively Promulgated in 16 Federal States of Germany.


Recently, the mask injunction was promulgated in succession in 16 federal states of Germany. According to the injunction, residents must wear a mask or cover their mouth and nose with scarf to minimize their own and others’ infection risks. Up till now, Saxony, Sachsen-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia have taken the lead to enforce the mask injunction. From 27th April, the injunction will take effect in other federal states. In Bavarian State, individuals breaking rules may be fined 150 euros, and employers who can’t provide their employees with masks will be fined as high as 5,000 euros.

 

11. Robert Koch Institute Also Claimed: It Is Impossible to “Ease Restrictions” at Present, and All Previous Efforts will Be Futile if Careless!


As a well-known German virologist and head of the Institute of Virology at the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Christian Drosten made a statement concerning the time for “easing restrictions” in Germany. In his opinion, it is inappropriate to ease restrictions too soon. Robert Koch Institute, which is a virus prevention and control organization, has expressed the same view. As Vice Head of the institute, Lars Schaade claimed in Berlin on 24th April that the favorable circumstance in Germany would be probably worsened again in Germany if the restrictions and policies are loosened, although the daily increase in the number of cases with COVID-19 is declining.  


13241241.png

Photo:Bernd von Jutrczenka/ dpa


12.17,000 People will Be Retested in England.


According to a report exposed by the Daily Telegraph, medical and nursing personnel of NHS and care facilities for the aged are required to receive further examinations, because their first COVID-19 reagent detection results were inaccurate. Loopholes have been detected in nucleic acid detection of COVID-19 in 17,000 employees of NHS. These employees’ test results aren’t reliable at all.

 

13. The Clinical Trial of the 1st German COVID-19 Vaccine Was Approved.

 

Do you still remember that the United States ever tried to obtain the exclusive right of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by CureVac (a biopharmaceutical company of Germany) with a large sum of money?

 

According to the reports of German media on 22nd April, the first German COVID-19 vaccine project had entered the stage of a clinical trial. This project isn’t from CureVac, but from BioNTech, where Fosun Pharma is a shareholder!

 

 


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1. The British Prime Minister will Return to Work.


On 21st April, the British government reported that Boris Johnson had a phone call with the American president Donald Trump and told him that he would return to work soon, but so far, Boris Johnson hasn’t formally returned yet.


According to the announcement of the Prime Minister’s Office, Boris Johnson thanked the American President “for extending wonderful wishes to him when he was infected with COVID-19”. Both of them also reached a consensus on “the importance of concerted international actions against COVID-19”, and hoped to sign a trade agreement “as soon as possible”.

This week, Boris Johnson will also have a phone call with the Queen. This will be his first phone call with the Queen over these three weeks.

 

 

2. The EU Program for Supporting Economy with 540 Billion Euros Was Approved at the EU Summit.


27 heads of states and governments of the European Union (EU) held a video conference on 23rd April and approved the EU program for supporting economy with 540 billion euros, in order to help EU member states overcome their financial difficulties arising from COVID-19. This program will be implemented on 1st June.

This video conference started from the afternoon of 23rd April till night. The program for supporting economy with 540 billion euros, in fact, had been confirmed at the meeting of finance ministers of different states. The approval at this video conference was just a formalistic procedure. Thus, the video conference shouldn’t have lasted long. However, extremely great controversies were aroused concerning whether to introduce “coronabonds” (Eurobonds).


12312.png

Photo:Ian Langsdon/ dpa


3. The Unemployed Population will Exceed Three Million in Germany.


According to a report of Frankfurt General Newspaper, some economists pointed out after their analysis that the impacts of COVID-19 on German labor market were far more serious than expected. Today, the German Federal Institute for Labor Market and Employment published a pertinent research report and stated that the unemployed population might exceed three million in the next few months in Germany. In this March, the unemployed population reached 2,335,000 million. Meanwhile, about one million people will be forced to leave their original posts. It was pointed out in this research report that among the unemployed population, tens of thousands of people were part-time workers who weren’t granted the subsidies for their short-time work. In consideration that German economy has been gravely impacted, the experts forecast that the GDP might drop by 8.4% in Germany, and the year-on-year decline of 14.6% would be even witnessed in the GDP of the second quarter.

 

4. The Travel Restrictions will Be Gradually Eased in Austria.


According to a report of La Prensa, Kurz reported that the travel restrictions would be gradually eased in Austria, but in a short run, it was inappropriate for Austrians to travel without restrictions, and Austrians were recommended to domestically spend their holidays. The Austrian government will give priority to consider entering into bilateral agreements for open travel with the neighboring states where COVID-19 is well controlled, including Germany and Czech Republic. When interviewed by the journalists, Kurz also reported that Austria took rigorous measures against COVID-19 similar to those implemented in Wuhan, China and some Asian countries to successfully control the epidemic situation. This type of realistic, prudent and correct countermeasures against COVID-19 shall be widely recognized and followed by the international community.

 

5. Confirmed News! Italy will Be Repen Again from 4th May.


According to a report of Evening Post, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte made a post on the social network Facebook on 21st April and stated that from 4th May, Italy will gradually ease its restrictions upon residents, and before the end of this week, the Italian government will explain the detailed plan to people.


In his post, Giuseppe Conte wrote, “Now, many citizens have been wary of the control measures. Everyone hopes to greatly ease the restrictions and even cancel all regulatory measures to make all industries restore to the normal state as soon as possible. I wish I could say, 'Let's reopen everything, immediately', but such a decision would be irresponsible. It would make the (coronavirus) infection curve go up in an uncontrolled way and would cancel out all the efforts we have made so far.”

 

6. France Hasn’t Gone out of the Crisis.


On 19th April, it was the 34th day after isolation measures had been taken in France since the outbreak of COVID-19 in this country. On this day, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe made a speech and stated the issue about unblocking that French residents were the most concerned about for the time being. At the same time, he warned that even after unblocking, “we will have to learn to coexist with viruses”.


Edouard Philippe will submit the specific unblocking plan at the end of April and the parliament will hold a session to discuss about the plan. He emphasized that, even by 11th May, unblocking will be realized “step by step”.

 

7. Over 20% Unemployment Rate, Soaring Commodity Price and Great Shortage of Some Commodities in Spain


According to a report of El Economista, the International Monetary Fund forecast that COVID-19 has been the most serious economic crisis since the global economic depression. Spain is the world’s biggest affected state only next to Italy. This year, its economy deflates by 8%, which is folds higher than the deflation ratio in 2009 and 2012. Besides, the unemployment rate will be as high as 20.8%.


On the other hand, the great shortage of commodities under the epidemic situation has led to a price increase in some commodities.

 

8.ill Large-scale Vaccination Be Carried out in October?


A Swedish immunologist claimed that a type of vaccine-specific to COVID-19 has been developed, and it would be put into use once the trial succeeded. Martin Bachmann, a doctor of Bern University Hospital, hopes to perform necessary research and approval procedures as soon as possible. He even believes that large-scale vaccination can be carried out in Switzerland this October.

 

The Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products (Swissmedic) has confirmed the research of Bachmann who is studying active substances against SARS-CoV-2 and other researchers. As the spokesperson of Swissmedic, Lukas Jaggi reported, the research schedule is quite optimistic but hasn’t been confirmed. In view of the urgency of COVID-19, the approval procedure will only take a few weeks instead of several months. If all approval requirements are satisfied, the vaccination will be possible by the end of this year. The spokesperson of Swissmedic has verified that, in case of life-threatening critical illnesses like COVID-19, interim approval can be generally given before clinical research. However, the research must be approved as well. If we follow all requirements and standards, the approval will be sped up.

 

9. The 77th Venice International Film Festival will Be Held in September as Scheduled.

 

Impacted by COVID-19, Germany canceled the 2020 Munich Beer Festival which has been planned to be held from 19th September to 4th October. Spain canceled the traditional San Fermin Festival to be held in July. However, the 77th Venice International Film Festival will be held as scheduled in Italy. 


According to the reports on the websites of ANSA and Radioitalia, the sponsor of La Biennale di Venezia has officially announced that 2020 Venice International Film Festival (from 2nd to 12th September) and Festival Internazionale di Musica Contemporanea (from 25th September to 4th October) will be held as scheduled. In addition, the International Festival Drama scheduled to be held in June will be postponed to the period from 14th to 24th September. The Contemporary Dance Festival will be delayed and held from 13th to 25th October.

 

As President of Venice International Film Festival, Roberto Cicutto states that control measures will be taken, including playing a video at the same time in several screening rooms, and a number of audiences will be restricted. In addition, the Organizing Committee will draft a traffic plan for participants of the film festival. It is reported that Cate Blanchett, a famous female Hollywood star, will act as Chairman of the Review Board of Venice International Film Festival as scheduled. 


Cannes International Film Festival scheduled to be held in May was postponed. As Chairman of Venice International Film Festival, Roberto Cicutto reports that both parties have no plan for organizing an exhibition together, but this doesn’t exclude the likelihood of cooperation.


314421421421.png

Photo:Christian Charisius / dpa

 

10. The Mask Injunction Was Successively Promulgated in 16 Federal States of Germany.


Recently, the mask injunction was promulgated in succession in 16 federal states of Germany. According to the injunction, residents must wear a mask or cover their mouth and nose with scarf to minimize their own and others’ infection risks. Up till now, Saxony, Sachsen-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia have taken the lead to enforce the mask injunction. From 27th April, the injunction will take effect in other federal states. In Bavarian State, individuals breaking rules may be fined 150 euros, and employers who can’t provide their employees with masks will be fined as high as 5,000 euros.

 

11. Robert Koch Institute Also Claimed: It Is Impossible to “Ease Restrictions” at Present, and All Previous Efforts will Be Futile if Careless!


As a well-known German virologist and head of the Institute of Virology at the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Christian Drosten made a statement concerning the time for “easing restrictions” in Germany. In his opinion, it is inappropriate to ease restrictions too soon. Robert Koch Institute, which is a virus prevention and control organization, has expressed the same view. As Vice Head of the institute, Lars Schaade claimed in Berlin on 24th April that the favorable circumstance in Germany would be probably worsened again in Germany if the restrictions and policies are loosened, although the daily increase in the number of cases with COVID-19 is declining.  


13241241.png

Photo:Bernd von Jutrczenka/ dpa


12.17,000 People will Be Retested in England.


According to a report exposed by the Daily Telegraph, medical and nursing personnel of NHS and care facilities for the aged are required to receive further examinations, because their first COVID-19 reagent detection results were inaccurate. Loopholes have been detected in nucleic acid detection of COVID-19 in 17,000 employees of NHS. These employees’ test results aren’t reliable at all.

 

13. The Clinical Trial of the 1st German COVID-19 Vaccine Was Approved.

 

Do you still remember that the United States ever tried to obtain the exclusive right of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by CureVac (a biopharmaceutical company of Germany) with a large sum of money?

 

According to the reports of German media on 22nd April, the first German COVID-19 vaccine project had entered the stage of a clinical trial. This project isn’t from CureVac, but from BioNTech, where Fosun Pharma is a shareholder!

 

 


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微信图片_20200331172926.jpg

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Restrictions;Approved;Germany;Commodity;April;Film