Daily life nears standstill as nations try to halt coronavirus pandemic
The Associated Press ROME (AP), Japan News, March 16, 2020
https://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0006424817
Meeting with friends, dining out, worshiping and other daily routines have nearly halted as nations take drastic steps to try to stop the coronavirus pandemic.
Religious leaders gave sermons to empty pews or to the faithful watching online Sunday after public worship was curtailed in many places.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City was being closed indefinitely, and the Vatican closed off next month’s Holy Week services to the public. Still, the 83-year-old Pope Francis ventured out of the Vatican to visit two churches in Rome to pray for the sick.
In a sign of how much the pandemic has grown, China now accounts for less than half of the world’s 168,000 cases, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
Though China still has the most infections, a dozen other countries have more than 1,000 cases, mostly in Europe.
On the first day of Spain’s quarantine, long lines formed for food as police patrolled. Soldiers and police sealed off the Philippines’ densely populated capital, Manila, from most domestic travelers. Austria planned to limit movement, and Lebanon was put on lockdown, closing down Beirut’s famed seaside corniche.
Ireland ordered all pubs and bars to close for two weeks,” including on Tuesday, St. Patrick’s Day,” and urged people not even to hold house parties. Two pub industry groups had warned of the ‘real difficulty,’ in keeping people apart in the country’s famous watering holes.
For most people, the coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, and those with mild illness recover in about two weeks. But severe illness including pneumonia can occur, especially in the elderly and people with existing health problems, and recovery could take six weeks in such cases.
The need to stop the virus from spreading to the most vulnerable people and to not overwhelm health care systems with sick patients are pushing the urgent calls for people to avoid public crowds or just stay home.