Easing Lockdown -- local population is almost free + tourists in Italy

Most countries have eased lock-down and some are even planning to allow tourists back in. Surprisingly, Italy, the country that had originally been hardest hit by COVID-19, is the first to allow European tourists to cross its borders starting on June 3 -- without quarantine or other restrictions.

Greece has lifted restrictions for its own citizens, but not for refugees until June 7. This puts the refugees in various legal quandaries -- because they can not do their asylum related paperwork since there are fines for exiting the areas where they live. The Greek are opening their country to German tourists from June 15 to mainland and to the various islands starting on July 1st. Germany is expected to lift travel advisories for trips abroad on June 15, and the media predicts Spain, Italy, Portugal will be fighting over German tourists. Greece hopes it has a good shot at attracting more tourists because they had very few cases of COVID-19 and if people are still scared of this or if they are worried about being allowed to get back home they would choose Greece over the other countries. On June 15, Greece will resume air arrivals from Eastern Europe, China and the parts of Western Europe that have not been heavily hit by the pandemic.

Romania ended its emergency state on May 15, and has let its citizen travel within the country -- with a declaration if they exit the city -- but otherwise unrestricted age-wise or hour-wise. They've opened the land borders, and tens of thousands of people started going in and out of the country -- either returning or going to work abroad. However, most airports remain closed to international flights until June 15, when we don't know what will happen yet again. I am hopeful flights will restart since they are doing so in the rest of Europe and there was no increase in either the number of cases or COVID-19 related deaths since the measures eased. The number of reported COVID-19 deaths are around 10 per day for the whole country, which is negligible next to the 800 who die daily form all causes combined.

The UK is now the country with the highest number of COVID-19 related deaths in Europe, and second in the world after the US. The US has three times as many deaths as the UK for five times as many people and so per capita the UK did worse. However, UK leaders have now decided to quarantine all arrivals starting in June for 14 days -- unless they come from France, which is another country with close to 30, 000 deaths -- on third place in Europe in terms of COVID-19 deaths (after Italy and the UK). They are also proposing some track and trace approach -- now that they have almost a third of million of diagnosed COVID-19 cases -- but do not ability to test individuals on request unless they exhibit symptoms. I am not sure how severe the symptoms have to be at the moment. Unfortunately, the UK shows us that decisions regarding quarantine and opening/closing borders are largely political and not based on health related considerations even during a pandemic.

 

There are various protests around the world where people require their leaders to step down due to the handling of the pandemic. My children are asking me if we'll be able to laugh at all this a few years down the road. The answer is not so clear. So many people don't have salaries, and so many are hungry -- more in countries like Lebanon and India than in Europe where a type lockdown is still in place that should have never been imposed and they have no salaries and no ability to pay for rent or food. People are critical of Brazil for not imposing lockdown. However, Peru imposed a very early lockdown and still has around 4000 deaths for its 32 million people, while Brazil has 26,000 deaths and 210,000 people -- so the death rate per capita is a bit higher in Peru than in Brazil, and fewer people go hungry in Brazil.

Lockdown is a popular action, but it's unclear it's saving us from this virus that is very infectious and has already spread throughout the world. I am thankful COVID-19 numbers are not going up even though restrictions have eased. My children ask if, in a few years from now, we will we laugh at these measures and give them an example as a real life version of Idiocracy? Perhaps, if democracy will return and if extreme powers will not take its place. For now, I am thankful for the slow return of human rights. David is starting school on June 2nd, and Andy has purchased a ticket to come see us on June 17. I hope his flight won't be canceled yet again.