the times | Thursday August 6 2020 2GM 13
News
Checkpoints
in New York
to keep all
visitors out
Will Pavia New YorkNew York will set up checkpoints at
bridges, tunnels and in its busiest train
station today to try to stop travellers
from other states starting a second
wave of infections in the city.
The mayor, Bill de Blasio, said that
the city would deploy agents to ensure
that motorists arriving from states in
the south and Midwest, where infec-
tions have surged, filled out a form and
committed to quarantine themselves
for 14 days.
Travellers “will be reminded that it is
not optional”, he said. Refusal could lead
to fines of up to $10,000 (£7,600). “The
quarantine must be applied consistently
to anyone who’s travelled,” he added.
The agents would be deployed from
the sheriff’s office and would stop cars
at random, said Sheriff Joseph Fucito,
whose office usually deals with tax and
revenue collection. He said that about
20 officers might be deployed, suggest-
ing that the checkpoints would not
place a particularly restrictive hold on a
city into which millions drive daily.
“We are going to be very visible, but
with any law enforcement model we
have to be flexible,” he said. While 20
agents could be deployed during the
day, “that number may reduce as the
evening progresses; it may increase”.
The city has already set up check-
points at airports, where officials try to
direct arrivals to fill out a form. They do
not appear to catch every passenger
arriving but anyone refusing to fill out
the form can be fined $2,000.
The restrictions mark a turnaround
for a city that was once the centre of the
pandemic in America. On five days in
April the state recorded more than
10,000 new infections in 24 hours and a
death toll that rose to more than 1,
in a single day. Since then the virus has
receded in the city. “Remember when
we started, other states were saying we
don’t want people from New York com-
ing to our state because we’re afraid
they’ll bring the virus?” Andrew Cuo-
mo, the governor of New York, said in
June. “Well, now we’re afraid people
from the other states might come here.”
That month New York, New Jersey
and Connecticut ordered that travel-
lers arriving from nine states would
have to quarantine for a fortnight. The
rules applied to states where 10 per cent
of Covid-19 tests were positive, or
where there was a seven-day average of
more than ten new cases for every
100,000 people. The list of states
fulfilling that criteria has risen to 35.
The rate of transmission is rising in
New Jersey too, though Mr Cuomo has
said that he is unsure how New York’s
neighbour could be placed on a
quarantine list. “The national Covid re-
sponse was a historic and colossal
blunder by the federal government,” he
said this week.
Farmers in the west and Midwest
have warned that the virus could dent
harvests amid rising infections and new
travel restrictions. “We’ve had a lot of
trouble getting our foreign workers
over here,” Doug Zink, a farmer in
North Dakota, said.
In one rural county in Washington
state, where nearly 1 per cent have test-
ed positive for the virus, there were
fears for migrant labourers arriving to
pick fruit while housed in dormitories.
Andy Hover, a county commissioner,
told The Hill news website that farms
had been trying to make adaptations by
taking workers’ temperatures and seg-
regating people who fell ill.was carried out on people convalescing
in regional hotels and was released by
an Osaka hospital.
Shares in Meiji, which sells a medi-
cine previously marketed as Isojin,
gained 7.7 per cent on Tuesday, and
were 4 per cent higher yesterday. By the
afternoon more than 1.2 million tweets
had been posted using the hashtag
#Isojin.
“Anyone else having trouble buying
gargling medicine? I’m coming to four
misses now,” wrote @shotaro—1117.
Yoshihide Suga, a representative of
Japan’s government, said he was aware
of the Osaka governor’s comments,
including the fact that researchers
would try to determine if the povidone-
iodine antiseptic could keep Covid-
symptoms from worsening. “The gov-
ernment will closely watch develop-
ments of the research,” Mr Suga said.
Some experts were sceptical, how-
ever. “These kinds of claims might even
lead to a high number of false negatives
for PCR tests [that spot signs of Covid-
19],” Shuichi Aoshima, a pharmacist
and medical writer, said on Twitter,
adding that tests after use of the germi-
cide would register lower levels of the
virus: “It’s the same as dripping povi-
done-iodine on to a virus sample.”
The French middle classes have
embraced “le glamping”, with home-
grown holidaymakers helping to rescue
the country’s tourism industry.
Tourist chiefs feared disaster as the
annual influx of foreigners, led by Brit-
ons, had largely failed to materialise.
The number of Britons visiting
France this summer appears to have
fallen sharply, with many campsites
saying that they had seen none at all.
There has been a decline in Germans,
Dutch and Belgians holidaying in
France, too, although nothing like as
steep as for the British.
However, tourist industry executives
have reported a rosier picture than
expected, at least in the country’s
campsites and gîtes. More French
people are holidaying at home this year,
with Le Figaro newspaper saying that
the season was providing “good surpris-
es” — welcome news in a country
where tourism accounts for 7.2 per cent
of national wealth.
Upmarket campsites offering “leLes glampers pitch in to save tourism
Adam Sage Paris were facing in April, you can say that
campsites have avoided a catastrophe.
“French campers have turned up and
the Belgians, the Germans and the
Dutch a bit as well, but not the British or
the Spaniards.”
The National Federation of Gîtes of
France said that the occupancy rate
among its 60,000 members was 71 per
cent last month, four points higher than
in July last year. The rate appears to be
even higher this month, the federation
said.
Hotels, however, are in crisis because
of a big fall in custom that is particularly
affecting those at the top end of the
market, which depend on American,
Russian and Middle Eastern guests.
France reported 1,695 new Covid-
infections over 24 hours, at 194,029, the
highest daily increase since May 30,
when they were up by 1,828, health
ministry data showed yesterday.
The ministry also said that the num-
ber of patients in intensive care units in
French hospitals for the disease went
down by four, at 384, after increasing
for two consecutive days.glamping” seem to be doing particular-
ly well as wealthy French families look
to maintain the luxury to which they
are accustomed while avoiding foreign
travel.
Take, for instance, the Glamping
Terre et Mer campsite at Étables-sur-
Mer in Brittany, which offers luxury
tepees and high-end wooden chalets.
Alexandre Burlot, the owner, said
that the occupancy rate last month had
been 82 per cent compared with 65 per
for July last year.
At the no less luxurious Camping du
Château de Chanteloup in central
France, Benoît Dorès, the owner, said
that in a normal year 90 per cent of his
clients were from outside France and
notably from Britain. This year, how-
ever, the British made up 15 per cent.
Yet with French taking staycations
and Dutch campers turning up too, the
occupancy rate was 90 per cent, he said.
Nicolas Dayot, the chairman of the
National Federation of Campsites, said
that his members’ takings were 25 per
cent down on last year. But he added:
“Compared to the uncertainties weNews
australia
Victoria, Australia’s second most
populous state, has reported 15
deaths and 725 new infections in
the bleakest day since the virus
took hold. Melbourne, its capital
city, which is home to nearly five
million people, is at the centre of
the new wave. The deaths included
a man in his 30s, making him the
youngest Australian to die of
Covid-19, and 12 people in care
homes. The city has been under a
strict curfew since the weekend but
was expected to come to a standstill
today as an order took effect for all
but essential shops and businesses
to shut for six weeks. Half a million
people in the city are expected to
be unable to work. The shutdowns
will include schools. The total
number of deaths from the
coronavirus in Australia stands at
247, according to the Department
of Health.vietnam
A new coronavirus outbreak has
spread to two more provinces, the
country’s health minister said, as
the Covid-19 task force declared the
contagion to be “under control” in
Danang, the tourist city where the
infections began. Aggressive
contact-tracing, targeted testing
and strict quarantine rules had
helped Vietnam to contain earlier
outbreaks but there are infections
in at least ten cities and provinces.
The health ministry confirmed 43
new cases, bringing total infections
to 713, with eight deaths.united states
A Texan who said he ran several
logistics and construction
companies has been accused of
taking $1.6 million in federal loans
meant to help businesses during the
pandemic. Lee Price III, 29, became
the second American in a fortnight
to be charged with fraud for
allegedly spending government
loan money on a Lamborghini. He
is said to have spent $233,000 on
the car, $14,000 on a Rolex watch
and about $2,000 on “personalentertainment” at a Houston strip
club. He will face a magistrate in
the city today.bolivia
Bolivia has cancelled its entire
2020 school year, including remote
learning, owing to concern over the
continued spread of the virus and
the fact that most children in the
country do not have access to the
internet. Jeanine Áñez, the acting
president, said the decision had
been “very hard”, but writing off an
educational year was deemed the
best solution for the country’s
challenges. The pandemic is
causing about 80 deaths a day in
the country of 11 million people.
More than 3,300 deaths have been
recorded.mexico
The country posted a near-record
one-day total of 857 Covid-
deaths, taking its toll to more than
48,000, the third highest in the
world. More than one million tests
have been performed, with almost
450,000 people testing positive.japan
Abi Masatora, a Sumo wrestler
aged 26, has offered to retire after
breaking Covid-19 restrictions by
visiting bars during the Grand
Sumo Tournament. He was found
to have visited hostess bars twice
but is reported to have tested
negative for Covid-19.Melbourne at
a standstill
with 725 more
cases in a day
Global cases 18,354,
Global deaths 696,World update
Countries reporting
most deathsSource: WHOUS 4,678,610 154,952 468
Brazil 2,750,318 94,665 445
Mexico 443,813 48,012 372
UK 307,184 46,364 683
India 1,908,254 39,795 29
Italy 248,419 35,171 582
France 180,037 30,176 462
Spain 302,814 28,498 610
Peru 433,100 19,811 601
Iran 314,786 17,617 210Cases DeathsDeaths/
1m popMost new cases1091
2
3
30
80India
US
Brazil
UK
China89216,52,
49,Reported new casesTeachers make
home visits in Cali,
Colombia, to keep in
touch with their
pupils. Full PPE
does not look so
intimidating in the
brightest pinkLUIS ROBAYO/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES