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 The big easing
More U.S. states prepare to ease coronavirus restrictions this week
despite continued warnings from health experts that there is still
too little diagnostic testing.
Colorado, Mississippi, Minnesota, Montana and Tennessee were set to
join several other states in reopening businesses without the means
to screen systematically for infected people who may be contagious
but asymptomatic, and to trace their contacts with others they might
have exposed.
Many merchants are worried about returning to work - but are doing
so anyway because they need the money.
"I would stay home if the government encouraged that, but they're
not. They're saying, 'Hey, the best thing to do is go back to work,
even though it might be risky,'" Royal Rose, 39, owner of a tattoo
studio in Greeley, Colorado, said.
Britain holds back
Italy, Spain, Germany and Switzerland are among the countries in
Europe starting to gradually wind down restrictions. Not so Britain,
where Prime Minister Boris Johnson - back at work on Monday after
recovering himself from COVID-19 - said it was still too risky.
Speaking outside his Downing Street residence a month and a day
since testing positive for the virus which threatened his life,
Johnson compared the disease to a street criminal that the British
people had wrestled to the floor.
"I ask you to contain your impatience because I believe we are
coming now to the end of the first phase of this conflict and in
spite of all the suffering we have so nearly succeeded."
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The spread
The Reuters tracker shows that the number of confirmed infections worldwide will
top three million in the coming hours.
(For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread, open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7
in an external browser.)
Essential scarecrows
The daily lockdown walk has been brightened by the addition of scarecrows
dressed as key workers in a village in southern England, as the community pays
tribute to doctors, nurses, shop assistants and waste collectors in its own
quirky way.
About 30 of the adult-sized stuffed dolls, complete with wigs and face masks,
stethoscopes and surgical gloves, are propped up in front gardens in the village
of Capel, about 30 miles south of London.
"We needed to cheer up the village and get people to have a laugh as they went
around on their daily exercise," said Sally Wyborn, who instigated the idea of
the scarecrows.
(Compiled by Mark John and Karishma Singh, Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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