Archives for February 2021

CODOGNO, Italy (AP) — With wreath-laying ceremonies, tree plantings and church services, Italians on Sunday marked one year since their country experienced its first known COVID-19 death.

Towns in Italy’s north were the first to be hard-hit by the pandemic and put under lockdown, and residents paid tribute to the dead. Italy, with some 95,500 confirmed virus dead, has Europe’s second-highest pandemic toll after Britain. Experts say the virus also killed many others who were never tested.

While the first wave of infections largely engulfed Lombardy and other northern regions, a second surge starting in the fall of 2020 has raced throughout the country. The number of new coronavirus infections has remained stubbornly high despite a raft of restrictions on travel between regions, and in some cases between towns. In addition, gyms, cinemas and theaters have been closed and restaurants and bars must shut early in the evening. There’s a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. nationwide curfew.

So far, Italy has confirmed 2.8 million cases.

It was in the hospital at the Lombard town of Codogno where a doctor recognized what would go down in medical history as the first known COVID-19 case in the West in a patient with no links to the outbreak in Asia, where coronavirus infections initially emerged. The diagnosis was made on the evening of Feb. 20, 2020, in a 38-year-old otherwise healthy, athletic man.

Near the Red Cross office in Codogno on Sunday, Lombardy’s governor and the town mayor attended a ceremony to unveil a monument to COVID-19 victims. The memorial consists of three steel pillars, representing resilience, community and starting over. A wreath was laid, and townspeople stood in silence to honor the dead.

“Panic, total panic,” was how one of Codogno’s 15,000 residents, Rosaria Sanna, on Sunday remembered what she felt at the start. And a year later ”I am still scared because it is not over yet.”

Some of her fellow townspeople lit candles during morning Sunday Masses in Codogno’s St. Blaise Church.

The Codogno hospital patient survived, after being transferred to another hospital and spending weeks on a respirator.

But it was in the northeastern town of Vo, in the neighboring Veneto region, where Italy’s first known COVID-19 death was registered on Feb. 21, 2020.

In Vo’s memorial ceremony, officials planted a tree. A plaque has been installed, quoting a line from the Italian poet Ugo Foscolo, whose works are widely studied by the nation’s schoolchildren. The inscription reads: “A man never dies if there is someone who remembers him.”

Italy’s first known fatality from COVID-19 was a 77-year-old Vo man, a retired roofer who liked to play cards.

___

Follow all of AP’s pandemic coverage at:

https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic

https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

Copyright © 2021 . All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

LONDON (AP) — The British government declared Sunday that every adult in the country should get a first coronavirus vaccine shot by July 31, at least a month earlier than its previous target, as it prepared to set out a “cautious” plan to ease the U.K.’s lockdown.

The previous aim was for all adults to get a jab by September. The new target also calls for everyone 50 and over and those with an underlying health condition to get their first of two vaccine shots by April 15, rather than the previous date of May 1.

The makers of the two vaccines that Britain is using, Pfizer and AstraZeneca, have both experienced supply problems in Europe. But U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Sunday that “we now think that we have the supplies” to speed up the vaccination campaign.

The early success of Britain’s vaccination effort is welcome good news for a country that has had more than 120,000 coronavirus deaths, the highest toll in Europe. More than 17.5 million people, a third of U.K. adults, have had at lease one vaccine shot since inoculations began on Dec. 8.

Britain is delaying giving second vaccine doses until 12 weeks after the first, rather than three to four weeks, in order to give more people partial protection quickly. The approach has been criticized in some countries — and by Pfizer, which says it does not have any data to support the interval — but it is backed by the U.K. government’s scientific advisers.

News of the new vaccine targets came as Prime Minister Boris Johnson met Sunday with senior ministers to finalize a “road map” out of the national lockdown. He plans to announce details in Parliament on Monday.

Faced with a dominant virus variant that scientists say is both more transmissible and more deadly than the original virus, Britain has spent much of the winter under a tight lockdown. Bars, restaurants, gyms, schools, hair salons and all nonessential shops have been closed; grocery stories, pharmacies and takeout food venues are still open.

The government has stressed that economic and social reopenings will be slow and cautious, with nonessential shopping or outdoor socializing unlikely before April. Many children will go back to school beginning on March 8 and nursing home residents will be able to have one visitor from the same date.

Johnson’s Conservative government has been accused of reopening the country too quickly after the first lockdown in the spring. The number of new confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths are all declining in February but remain high, and Johnson says his reopening road map will follow “data, not dates.”

But he is under pressure from some Conservative lawmakers, who argue that restrictions should be lifted quickly to revive an economy that has been hammered by three lockdowns in the last year.

John Edmunds, a member of the government’s scientific advisory group, said British hospitals are still treating almost 20,000 coronavirus patients, half the January peak but almost as much as the height of the first surge last spring.

“If we eased off very rapidly now, we would get another surge in hospitalizations” and deaths, he told the BBC.

Edmunds said there is added uncertainty because of new virus variants, including one identified in South Africa that may be more resistant to current vaccines.

Hancock told Sky News that the government would take a “cautious but irreversible approach” to reopening the economy.

Despite the success of Europe’s fastest vaccination campaign, the U.K. government has been accused of failing to protect disabled people, who are among the most at-risk from coronavirus.

The Office for National Statistics has found that 60% of people who died with coronavirus in England in 2020 had a physical or mental disability. But many disabled people, apart from those with “severe or profound” learning disabilities, have not been put in a priority group for vaccination.

Jo Whiley, a well-known BBC radio DJ, on Sunday highlighted the plight of her 53-year-old sister Frances, who has a learning disability. Whiley said her sister contracted the coronavirus in an outbreak at her care home, whose residents had not been vaccinated.

Whiley said her sister had finally been offered a shot of vaccine — but it came too late.

“She was actually called in for her vaccine last night. My mum got a message to say that she could get vaccinated, but it’s too late, she’s fighting for her life” in the hospital, Whiley told the BBC. “It couldn’t be crueller.”

___

Follow all of AP’s pandemic coverage at:

https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic

https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

Copyright © 2021 . All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

NEW YORK (AP) — As airlines slashed flights and furloughs appeared inevitable in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Mike Catania sensed there would be little need for a service that helped airline crews find short-term housing.

So, Catania and his fellow owners shut down Padloop in early March, even though the nearly year-old company had just broken even.

Catania started looking at how life was changing amid the pandemic and came up with the idea for his next business: Locaris, a website to help apartment renters connect with prospective neighbors to get the scoop on buildings and landlords. Because the pandemic limited people’s ability to meet in person, Locaris enabled renters to get the lowdown on a building safely.

“I tried to focus on, what is COVID a catalyst for? What trends is it bringing to market a couple of years ahead of schedule?” says Catania, who lives in Henderson, Nevada. Locaris launched in June and quickly found success.

As owners are forced to shut businesses, they’ve had to figure out what to do next. For entrepreneurs like Catania, the answer has been anticipating the next trend and creating a company to take advantage of it. Some owners have started businesses similar to those they lost, or companies that fill a different role in the same industry. Others have gone to work for someone else, while perhaps holding onto hopes of eventually reviving the businesses they shuttered.

It’s not known how many small businesses have failed in the pandemic, but different estimates all show devastation. Based on a projection last spring by the National Bureau of Economic Research, the number is likely well into the hundreds of thousands. Data from the work scheduling software company UKG shows that about one in six small businesses have closed their doors since the pandemic began. And the National Restaurant Association, a trade group, said 17% of U.S. restaurants, or more than 110,000, had permanently shut by Dec. 1; it’s likely that many were small or mid-sized businesses.

Alex Willen of San Diego was preparing to open a dog boarding business when the pandemic hit; he was about to sign papers for a Small Business Administration loan to cover construction costs when his bank said it was putting new business loans on hold. Willen sensed the virus outbreak wouldn’t end quickly, which meant dog owners wouldn’t be traveling and many would keep working at home, eliminating the need for his services.

By May, the loan money was available, but Willen decided to give up rather than open the business and not have revenue for months, maybe longer.

“It was looking like COVID was not going away by November or December, and those are huge months for dog boarding,” says Willen.

Willen soon decided to restart a business he’d shelved in favor of boarding: dog treats. Willen didn’t have to start at square one because he had already done some preliminary marketing and package design for the business.

Willen bakes for his two dogs, Cooper and Maple — which gave him the idea for Cooper’s Treats. He sells the treats on his website and Amazon.

“It’s looking like a real business,” he says.

Kathryn Valentine closed her consulting business last summer because she had lost her child-care options. Valentine’s nanny quit to take care of her own children, and daycare centers were closed. With a baby and a toddler, the Atlanta-based mother couldn’t work the 9-to-5 schedule followed by the apparel companies that were her clients. She had to come up with another line of work — and quickly.

She already was an expert in training women in negotiating, a skill necessary for career success. Valentine had researched the subject in business school, so she founded Worthmore Negotiations and began lining up corporate clients.

“About once a week I’ll have a commitment during the day, but otherwise all my work gets done after 7 p.m.,” she says. But Valentine hopes to revive her consulting business once the pandemic is over and she has child-care again. Her hope is to keep both businesses.

A series of lockdowns in Britain forced Steve West to close his acupuncture practice. With no money coming in, he returned to digital marketing, work that helped him get through a slowdown in his practice during the Great Recession. He’s not sure when, or if, he’ll return to acupuncture, given people’s uncertainty about close contact.

He’s also concerned that when life returns to normal, some clients will decide they’ve done just fine without acupuncture. Meanwhile, companies are in continual need of digital marketing, which helps them get more visibility in internet searches.

“This is the time to focus on this (digital marketing), and maybe come back to acupuncture in the future,” says West, who lives in Haywards Heath, in the south of Britain.

Kriti Sachdeva has a new job, with an agency that does e-commerce consulting. She had to shut her business that organized fairs and markets in Britain and other European countries; she had just five days’ notice that she had to cancel a fair in London last March, and five more events in the following months also were scraped.

In April, Sachdeva realized she needed to get a job. “I knew this was going to take a long time and I knew I couldn’t do nothing,” she says.

She landed her position in June. She loves the work and sees herself doing it long-term, but also wonders about someday possibly organizing fairs on the side.

“I think about it every day,” she says.

Copyright © 2021 . All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Forget about oil and arms. Coronavirus vaccines are emerging as the newest currency of choice in the Middle East.

Israel’s reopening of its economy, combined with a murky prisoner swap with Syria and the arrival of a batch of vaccines in the Gaza Strip, have all underscored how those with access to the vaccines have political power in the turbulent region.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been at the forefront of this trend, pinning his re-election hopes on the success of his campaign to vaccinate Israel’s adult population. At the same time, he has offered rewards to those who vaccinate and punishments to those who don’t.

Israel has jumped out to the world’s fastest vaccination campaign, administering at least one dose to more than half its 9.3 million people and the required two doses to about a third in less than two months. In contrast to the long waits seen in Europe and the U.S., vaccines are plentiful and available almost on demand to anyone who wants one. Clinics have even offered free food and cappuccinos to help lure reluctant holdouts to come in and get the jab.

Netanyahu’s efforts finally seem to be bearing fruit, and the number of new coronavirus infections and serious cases is dropping. That enabled the government on Sunday to lift a number of restrictions, reopening stores, shopping malls, and many schools after a two-month lockdown. In the coming weeks, all schools and restaurants are expected to reopen, just in time for the March 23 election.

“The timing is good for him,” said Gideon Rahat, a political scientist at Israel’s Hebrew University.

Whether it is enough to divert attention from an ongoing corruption trial and the broader economic damage caused by the pandemic is another issue.

Much will depend on Netanyahu’s “agenda setting,” Rahat said. “He will talk about the vaccines all the time,” he said, while others will focus on his missteps over the past year.

Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs and businesses during a series of lockdowns, and there is widespread public anger over the flouting of lockdown restrictions by the ultra-Orthodox religious community, one of Netanyahu’s key political allies. Many say Netanyahu waited too long to close the country’s main airport, allowing fast-spreading variants of the virus to infect the unvaccinated.

Sticking to his script, Netanyahu on Saturday unveiled his “green pass” program, which will allow the fully vaccinated to attend cultural events, fly abroad and patronize restaurants and health clubs. These services and amenities will remain off limits for those who do not get immunized.

“I ask everyone who has not been vaccinated – go be vaccinated. You will have the Green Pass and you will also be able to benefit from it,” Netanyahu said during a photo op at a Tel Aviv-area gym.

Israel has faced international criticism for largely excluding Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip from the vaccination campaign.

Yet Netanyahu reportedly showed little hesitation in agreeing to pay Russia some $1.2 million to buy coronavirus vaccines for archenemy Syria as part of a deal last week to release an Israeli woman held captive in Damascus.

Netanyahu boasted last week that his warm ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin helped clinch the deal. His office made no mention of any vaccines and reportedly pushed the country’s military censor to block the vaccine purchases.

Asked about the reported deal, Netanyahu was evasive. He said “not one Israeli vaccine” was delivered to Syria — a country that harbors hostile Iranian forces. But he would not say whether Israel had paid Russia for the vaccines.

“It is legitimate for the Israeli government to decide to deviate from past norms and to pay with another form of currency,” Yoav Limor, an Israel military affairs correspondent, wrote in Israel Hayom. “However, the decision to hide that is baffling and worrisome. Obviously, someone was very uncomfortable with having that matter come to light.”

Yet Netanyahu does not appear to be deterred. An Israeli official said Sunday that Israel is considering sharing surplus vaccines with friendly nations. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing internal government deliberations.

The disparities between Israel’s successful vaccination push with its own population and the Palestinians have drawn criticism from U.N. officials and rights groups and have shined a light on the inequities between rich and poor countries getting access to vaccines.

These groups contend that Israel is responsible for vaccinating the Palestinians, while Israel has argued that under interim peace agreements it is not responsible for vaccinating them. Israel’s vaccination campaign has included its own Arab population.

Ahmad Tibi, a prominent Arab lawmaker in the Israeli parliament, wrote on Twitter: “Must we wait for a Jewish person to cross the border with Gaza for them to deserve vaccines?”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has struggled to secure vaccines for his people. So far, he has received 2,000 doses from Israel to treat medical workers in the West Bank, and 10,000 doses from Russia.

One of Abbas’ main rivals on Sunday orchestrated the delivery of 20,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine from the United Arab Emirates. The move by Mohammed Dahlan, a former Abbas aide forced into exile after a falling out with the Palestinian leader, appeared to be aimed in part at making Abbas appear weak ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled in May.

Dahlan, who is backing a list of supporters in the election, “boosted his position and political presence” with the delivery, said Mustafa Ibrahim, a Gaza-based writer. “It’s part of the campaigning and empowers the group that delivers the aid.”

___

AP correspondents Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem and Fares Akram in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, contributed reporting.

Copyright © 2021 . All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.