Thursday9 April 2020 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES 3
JA M E S S H OT T E R— WA R S AW
SA M J O N E S— Z U R I C H
After a month of tightening lockdowns
across Europe to combat coronavirus,
Austria, the Czech Republic and Den-
mark will in the coming weeks become
the first European countries to loosen
restrictions on daily life and business.
Their slow exit from lockdown will be
carefully watched by others across the
continent who also want to revive eco-
nomic activity without damaging public
health.
Denmark has made the most far-
reachingchanges, saying this week that
kindergartens and primary schools will
reopen from April 15. The Czech Repub-
lic announced that shops selling some
non-essential goods would be able to
reopen fromtoday, while Austria said
thatsmall shops, DIY stores and garden
centrescould pen from April 14.o
“We are now able to manage the pan-
demic relatively well here. It is not the
pandemic that is managing us,” Czech
health minister Adam Vojtech told a
press conference, adding that further
relaxations were possible, depending on
how the outbreak progressed.
Their small size relative to other EU
states whose health systems have been
floored by the virus, and quick reaction
to its emergence, worked in their favour,
analysts said.
“Overall, the relatively rapid response
of these governments through lock-
down measures is likely to have proved
very useful in reducing incidence and
burden on healthcare capacity in the
three countries,” said Joshua Moon,
from the science policy research unit at
the University of Sussex Business
School.
All three moved quickly to introduce
deep restrictions on public life, shutting
down schools, banning mass gatherings
and, in the case of Austria and the Czech
Republic, also ordering citizens towear
masks utside their homes.o
Denmark and the Czech Republic —
along with Poland and Slovakia — were
the first countries in the EU to close
their borders in response to the pan-
demic.
The measures appear — so far — to
have helped slow the spread of the dis-
ease. The number of new daily cases has
been trending downwards in Austria
and the Czech Republic over the past
seven days, though such a trend is not
yet clear in Denmark.
Although Austria borders Italy, which
has been brought to its knees by the cri-
sis, it has had just 12,592 cases — com-
pared with 21,700 in neighbouring Swit-
zerland and 103,000 in Germany — and
252 deaths. The Czech Republic has had
just 4,828 cases and 80 deaths. Den-
mark has had 4,681 cases and 187
deaths.
But for all their success in containing
the spread of the virus so far, the deci-
sion to start relaxing restrictions is
fraught with risk.
The Danish easing met with a back-
lash from parents and teachers, who
feared that reopening schools put chil-
dren at risk. And even as the Czech
Republic announced its easing of the
rules for shops, it said that it would
extend its state of emergency until the
end of April.
I n d e e d , t o s o m e ex t e n t , t h e
announcements mask the broader real-
ity of the governments’ plans: that pub-
lic life will not fully return to normal for
many months.
“It was framed very positively. It was a
very smart piece of political communi-
cation,” said Thomas Hofer, a Vienna-
based political commentator, in refer-
ence to Austrian chancellor Sebastian
Kurz’s announcement that he was relax-
ing restrictions.“What he did was he gave people a
perspective — a future. But it’s not over
yet — that’s what he was also stressing.”
As such, the Austrian government has
said it hopes it will be able to open cafés
and restaurants in mid-May, but it has
fallen short of making any definitive
commitments.
Schools are to remain closed in Aus-
tria for the indefinite future. Govern-
ment officials believe that the likeliest
scenario is for the education system to
remain shut until the new school year
begins in September.
None of the three countries have
given any indication hey are preparedt
to open their borders to foreigners.
Mr Kurz has previously hinted that
the idea of holiday or cross-border
travel for leisure is off the table until a
vaccine is found.
Keith Neal, emeritus professor of the
epidemiology of infectious diseases at
the University of Nottingham, said he
expected governments slowly to scale
down their restrictions until either the
development of a vaccine or herd
immunity allowed a resumption of
more normal life. But hewarned that it
might be necessary to reintroduce curbs
on public life if the virus flared up again.
Additional reporting by Richard MilneCzech Republic, Denmark and
Austria set to ease restrictions
EU nations that were quickest with curbs now aim to relax them, but not without risk
Free spirits:
residents of an
apartment in
Prague applaud
street musicians
this week. Below
centre, Austrian
chancellor
Sebastian Kurz,
who plans to
allow small
shops to reopen
from Monday
Martin Divisek/EPA;
Helmut Foringer/A‘What
[SebastianKurz] did
was he gavepeople a
perspective— a future.
But it’s notover yet —
that’s whathe was also
stressing’S U N Y U A N D D O N W E I N L A N D— W U H A N
Seventy-six days after severing links
with the outside world, the Chinese city
at the centre of the global coronavirus
outbreak has lifted its official ban on
travel, ending the world’s largest mass
quarantine.
The “liberation” of Wuhan marks an
important step in President Xi Jinping’s
plan to declare anearly victory ver theo
crisis just as western countries are
struggling to contain the outbreak.
Some 55,000 peoplewere expected to
leave Wuhan yesterday, the railway
administration said.
But for many of Wuhan’s 11m resi-
dents, the formal lifting of restrictions
on movement is just the start of a ongl
recovery or a city in severe economicf
distress and a population fearful of a
second outbreak.
Activity has picked up on the streets
but many businesses remain shut.
Scores of residential districtsare still
sealed off, barring free movement.
Many people eager to leave the city
are waiting for permission to do so and
will end up in quarantine when they
eventually arrive at their destinations.
Even more worrying, locals fear asymp-
tomatic cases are spreadingas people
emerge from their homes.
“There is no reason to feel relieved,”
said Lucy Zhang,who has been stuck in
the city throughout the crisis. “The dis-
ease has come under control because
China has allocated the entire nation’s
medical resources to Wuhan. We can’t
afford a second wave.”
Wuhan was sealed offon January 23
with cities and towns across Hubei prov-
incequickly following suit. An esti-
mated 60m people were trapped.
While most of Hubei province reo-
pened on March 25, Wuhan remained
closeduntilyesterday.
Its reconnection with the world has
been hailed in state media as proof that
China has succeeded hile other coun-w
tries such as the US, Italy and Spain
have struggled to bring the outbreak
under control.
Locals in Wuhan have wel-
comed the opening of their city
but point out thatvictory is still
far off.
In Wuhan’s central
H a n k o u a r e a ,where the virus is thought to have origi-
nated, manycommunities are still
under strict lockdown. Apartment
blocks have beencorralled with make-
shift walls that stop people leaving or
entering.
Authoritiesare focused on the risk of
asymptomatic carriers of the disease
spreading through the city as controls
are lifted. Residents where such cases
are discovered are barred from leaving.
The fear of new contagion has forced
many to stay inside. Those free to move
about say they plan to do so cautiously.
“When you just recover from a big dis-
ease, you wouldn’t eat and drink heav-
ily. You take a gradual approach to
return to normal life and that’s what
Wuhan will experience,” said Jack Mao,
a sales director at Charoen Pokphand
Group in Wuhan.
The evering of transport linkss
to other provinces in January
trapped tens of thousands of
people from elsewhere in
the country.
More than 50 non-resi-
dents housed in a make-
shift dormitory re keena
to return to their home
owns after being stuck for
more than two months.
They were initially denied
entry to hotels and forced
to sleep on the street, butin early March local officials provided
free shelter and food and promised a
one-off subsidy of Rmb3,000 ($425) per
person.
But many among the group are still
angry. Li Xiujuan, a ales manager froms
Hunan province, said she paid a heavy
price for the slow response to the crisis.
“I’ve lost two months of income and
couldn’t be with my family,” said Ms Li,
who lanned to leave yesterday for thep
city of Changsha. “The government
would not even compensate my train
ticket even though it’s their fault forcov-
ering up the disease.”
Many people eager to take advantage
of their new-found mobility are finding
it more difficult than expected to leave
Wuhan. To return to some cities, such as
Hangzhou and Guangzhou, travellers
must be tested for the virus, which can
take a long time and is very expensive.
Nikki Xu, aprogrammer who works
for a Beijing ecommerce company, was
trapped in Wuhan after visiting her par-
ents for the lunar new year. She is now
allowed to return tothe capital butmust
enter a government quarantine facility.
“Now they said I can go but will have
to let them know [so I can be taken to
the facility],” Ms Xu said.Rather than
face uarantine in another city, sheq
planned to stick it out in Wuhan.
Additional reporting by Selena Li in Hong
KongEpicentre. uarantine endQ
Wuhan greets liberation with anger and anxiety
M I C H A E L P E E L —B R U S S E L SA bitter dispute has broken out over
the departure of a top EU scientist after
former colleagues accused him of
a “lack of engagement” with his work
and branded his resignation state-
ment “economical with the truth”.Mauro Ferrari quit n Tuesdayo s presi-a
dent of the European Research Council,
the EU’s flagship scientific institu-
tion, and launched an attack on the
bloc’s handling of the coronavirus
pandemic.
But the ERC’s governing scientific
council hit backyesterday in a state-
ment that said its other 19 members had
unanimously backed a no-confidence
vote in Prof Ferrari in late March, after
just three months in the job.
The statement accused the professor,
an Italian-American pioneer of nano-
medicine, of a “complete lack of appre-
ciation” for the ERC’s purpose and of
being distracted by external commer-
cial and academic activities.
“Since his appointment, Professor
Ferrari displayed a lack of engagement
with the ERC, failing to participate in
many important meetings, spending
extensive time in the USA and failing to
defend the ERC’s programme and mis-
sion when representing the ERC,” said
the statement by the council, which
comprises eminent scientists and schol-ars from across Europe. “Therefore, we
regret Professor Ferrari’s statement,
which at best is economical with the
truth.”
Prof Ferrari was involved in “multiple
external enterprises” that had taken “a
lot of his time and effort and appeared
on several occasions to take precedence
over his commitment to the ERC”, the
scientific council said. The professor is a
director of Arrowhead Pharmaceuti-
cals, a US biotech ompany, according toc
the company’s website. He is also an
affiliate professor at the University of
Washington’s school of pharmacy.
Prof Ferrari defended his conduct and
said all his external activities had been
approved by the European Commission.
The professor said he had heard about
the ERC scientific council’s March 27 no-
confidence vote but had never eenb
summoned “to address problems or dif-
ferences of opinion”. EU officials said
the commission had tried unsuccess-
fully to broker a solution.
“This, I think, highlights that there
are tensions between the scientific
council and the commission, which per-
tain to the independence of the ERC and
its governing body,” Prof Ferrari said.
“In many ways, I was caught in the ten-
sions between these two.”
The commission said it regretted Prof
Ferrari’s resignation “at this early stage”
and wished him well.No-confidence vote
Research council hits at top
EU scientist after resignation
H E L E N WA R R E L L— LO N D O N
K AT R I N A M A N S O N— WA S H I N GTO NState-backed hackers are exploiting
fears over coronavirusto increase
cyber espionage at a time when home
working and anxiety about infection
have increased vulnerability to online
attacks, the US and UK have warned.In ajoint-communiqueyesterday, Brit-
ain’s National Cyber Security Centre, a
branch of signals intelligence agency
GCHQ, and the US Cybersecurity and
Infrastructure Security Agency, part of
the homeland security department,
highlighted the “growing use” ofstate-
sponsored cyber attacks amid the
pandemic.
The UK and US agencies said hackers
working on behalf of nations including
China, Russia and Iran — the so-called
“Advanced Persistent Threat” groups —
were making the most of the outbreak to
spy on their adversaries.
These groups are using coronavirus
email “lures” o entice officials, academ-t
ics and employees at public health bod-
ies into clicking on links that give hack-
ers access to theirnetworks.
“APT groups are using the Covid-
pandemic as part of their cyber opera-
tions,” the US eport said.r
“Their goals and targets are consist-
ent with longstanding priorities, such as
espionage and ‘hack-and-leak’ opera-
tions.”The frequency and severity of the ini-
tiatives would “increase over the com-
ing weeks and months”, security offi-
cials briefed on the matter said.
One security expert said the pan-
demic was changing hackers’ methods
and targets. “The virus crisis has
brought new intelligence requirements.
Countries now want to know what other
governments are doing about the virus,
they want to find out details about vac-
cines, to make sure they’re aware of thelatest developments,” the official said.
“So as well as all the usual intelligence
sources they are now focusing on aca-
demic organisations that might be doing
modelling, people working on public
policy responses, scientists who are
advising government,” the official said.
“Nation states are asking for new types
of intelligence so hackers are pivoting to
answer those questions.’”
Since theoutbreak began, the US
health and human services department
has been hit by a cyber attack on its
computer system, while the World
Health Organization has also been the
victim of attempted attacks.Espionage
Hackers using crisis to mount
attacks, warn spy agencies
ST E FA N I A PA L M A— S I N G A P O R E
A L I C E WO O D H O U S E— H O N G KO N GSingapore is fighting a new coronavirus
outbreakfocused on the city’s army of
migrant workers, underlining the chal-
lenge of returning to normality even
for countries that seemed to have
brought the epidemic under control.The city state, which hadwon plaudits
for its rapid initial response to the out-
break in January, has announced a near
total lockdown after reporting a surge in
new cases over the past few days. Total
infections have jumped 60 per cent in
the past week to 1,481, including 106 on
Tuesday and 120 on Sunday, a record for
a single day for Singapore.
“The trend is particularly concerning
in the past week,” said Gan Kim Yong,
minister of health, citing the new clus-
ters and growing number of patients
with no links to confirmed cases.
Singapore and Hong Kong were quick
to use stringent travel restrictions, con-
tact tracing and other measures toslow
the spread f the disease ando ppeareda
to have it under control. But the two
international financial centres are fac-
ing a sharp rise in locally transmitted
cases after stemming imported infec-
tions, forcing them to implement this
week their toughest easures yet.m
Singapore on Tuesday assed a billp
banning social gatherings, while HongKongyesterday extended for two more
weeks closures of entertainment venues
and restrictions on public gatherings.
Hong Kong authoritiessaid they had
seen a “drastic increase” in the number
of patients over the past fortnight from
387 to 936. “Many of the cases are locally
acquired infections without travel his-
tory,” the government said.
The number of Singapore’s locally
transmitted infections has more than
doubled in the past fortnight. They
include new clusters at foreign worker
dormitories, in which thousands of
migrants live in often crowded rooms.
Authorities on Sunday put two of
these dormitories housing 19,800 peo-
ple in isolation for two weeks, during
which time workers would not be able to
leave their rooms. In the past three days,
cases linked to foreign worker dormito-
ries accounted for 35 per cent of newly
reported patients.
Singapore has passed a bill valid for
up to six months that prohibits social
gatherings of any size among individu-
als not living in the same household.
Schools and most workplaces have been
closed until May 4.
Hong Kong as shuth fitness centres,
karaoke parlours and bars while restau-
rants must halve seating capacityand
ensure tables are1.5 metres apart.
Additional reporting by Nicolle Liu in Hong
KongCases surge
Singapore and Hong Kong
fight jump in infections
GCHQ: the UK
security agency
says hackers are
exploiting the
outbreak to spy on
their adversariesMove is step towards recovery
but some curbs remain and
locals fear second wave
A passenger
at Wuhan
airport
yesterdayC O R O N AV I R U S
APRIL 9 2020 Section:World Time: 8/4/2020- 18:43 User:john.conlon Page Name:WORLD2 USA, Part,Page,Edition:USA, 3, 1