European countries are locked in a critical week as they begin to ease the historic closures they have taken to combat the new epidemic of the Coronavirus, while the number of recorded infections worldwide is close to three million.
The epidemic has killed 203,000 people, out of a total of 2.89 million infections that have been officially registered since the virus was discovered in China late last year, according to compiled statistics published by Johns Hopkins University, and more than 822,000 people have recovered.
In Spain, the third most affected country, the authorities will allow children from their homes from Sunday for the first time in six weeks.
The government said it would allow children under the age of 14 to leave for one hour of supervised outdoor activity from nine in the morning until nine in the evening, provided that they would not move more than one kilometer from their homes.
Since March 14, Spain has been subject to strict isolation measures, which were extended until May 9, during which it prohibited the exit of those under the age of 14, even if they were accompanied by their families.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will present his expanded plan next Tuesday to exit the closure, which is likely to be implemented in the second half of May.
On Tuesday, his French counterpart, Edouard Philippe, will also unveil before the parliament a "national strategy to lift the isolation", which is supposed to start on May 11th.
Preparations in Italy
In Italy, the authorities announced yesterday, Saturday, plans to put an end to the prices of protective masks and increase antibody tests, as it approached the end of the longest national closure period to contain the emerging coronavirus.
And the country is awaiting a fateful decision at the end of this week regarding testing the restrictions that will be lifted when the current closure period ends on May 3. Italians are more likely to be allowed, with the start of next month, to leave their homes freely for the first time since 9 March.
Italy, the world's second worst-hit country, is launching a campaign to test antibodies to 150,000 people nationwide, in an effort to find out more about the epidemic.
Protests
And the authorities arrested in the German capital Berlin yesterday, Saturday, about one hundred people for violating the measures of social separation, during a demonstration against the preventive measures, which included about a thousand people.
In Canada, Ontario Provincial Prime Minister Dag Ford criticized demonstrators who denounced isolation measures and stalled the economic wheel, saying that there was a group of people "protesting, breaking the law and putting everyone at risk, including themselves."
Canadian authorities have confirmed that their plans to reopen the economy are not based on a population immune to the future, according to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has called for caution.
The lifting of restrictions set in some countries is accompanied by new rules for transportation and daily life. In South Africa, the application of respirators will be mandatory from May 1, the date on which the isolation measures will be relaxed.
Ease restrictions in Arab countries
And the official Saudi news agency said at dawn today, Sunday, that King Salman bin Abdulaziz issued an order to partially lift the curfew in all regions of the Kingdom, so that it will be from nine in the morning until five in the evening starting today, while keeping the complete curfew in Mecca.The royal order also permitted the opening of some economic and commercial activities, including wholesale and retail trade stores and commercial centers, during the period from the sixth of Ramadan until the twentieth of the same month.
The Saudi authorities announced yesterday, Saturday, that 1197 new cases of coronavirus were recorded, and nine new deaths.
In Algeria, the office of Prime Minister Abdelaziz Jarad said yesterday that the country has taken other steps to ease restrictions imposed by the Coronavirus by allowing many stores to resume activities, to reduce the economic and social impacts of the health crisis caused by the pandemic.
The procedures include opening building materials stores, public works, household appliances, fabrics, jewelry, clothing, shoes, cosmetics, perfumes, home and office furniture, pastries and hairdressers, as well as transporting individuals by taxi.
On Thursday, the Algerian government decided to reduce the measures of public isolation, by reducing the curfew in some states, but it called on citizens to be vigilant. And that measure came hours before the month of Ramadan, which started Friday.
According to Algerian government figures, the number of corona infections reached 3256 cases and 419 deaths, while 1479 patients recovered.
In Jordan, Al-Jazeera camera toured the city of Aqaba (south of the country), which the authorities declared free of any infections from the Coronavirus, and was the first Jordanian governorate to relax the curfew on citizens because of the degree of commitment to the procedures.
The city authorities hope to return domestic tourism to it during the next two months.
Meanwhile, cases of HIV infection continue to be monitored in many Arab countries, as the Ministry of Health in the Sultanate of Oman announced, this morning, 93 new infections, registering the total number to 1998.
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