FRANCE. To ring in the New Year, French Interior Gérald Darmanin, the country’s “top cop” – who was questioned last month by judges over rape charges – deployed 132,000 police to limit New Year’s Eve celebrations.
The Financial Times reported the French government extended the nightly curfew in 15 departments in the east and south-east back from 8 PM to 6 PM while prompting politicians in those zones to impose stricter measures.
The government also indefinitely extended the closing of museums and cinemas and forced restaurants and bars to stay closed.
U.K. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Sunday that the U.K. is dealing with a surge in COVID infections, and he may have to order “tougher measures” in the coming weeks to get the virus under control.
Johnson told the BBC in an interview that the measures might lead to school closures and the complete ban of any household mixing. The report said England is under a “tier system,” and most of the country is at the highest level. Other areas like Sussex and Cambridge will also soon follow those guidelines.
Britain has recorded 82,600 deaths since the beginning of the outbreak. As with global data, the elderly are the prime victims of the disease. According to the Office for National Statistics analyses of the virus, the average age of those who have died from COVID is above 80, with more than nine in ten of the deaths among those over 65 years old.
Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labor Party, said Johnson needs to act quickly. “We can’t allow the prime minister to use up the next two or three weeks and then bring in national lockdown which is inevitable.”
An anti-lockdown protest broke out at London’s Hyde Park last weekend, which resulted in 17 arrests, according to The Evening Standard. One of the arrests included Piers Corbyn, the brother of the former Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
On Monday, Prime Minister Johnson announced a national lockdown ordering the people to stay at home until mid-February. Schools and non-essential businesses were shut across the country, and people are prohibited to leave their homes unless it is necessary.
TREND FORECAST: The longer the lockdowns last, the greater the protests will grow. As Gerald Celente has long said, “When people lose everything and have nothing left to lose, they lose it.” And lose it they are: businesses, lives, and livelihoods are being destroyed by lockdown rules that defy science.
Indeed, as data proves in New York State, the virus infection rate from restaurants is a measly 1.43 percent, yet the New York City establishments, as with those across the globe, have been forced to close down.
ITALY. Before the Christmas holiday, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told the country the virus outbreak forced him to lock down bars and restaurants from Christmas Eve to 6 January, according to The New York Times.
An analysis of the individuals who died after contracting the virus revealed that the vast majority of deaths occurred among the elderly.
Reports show that some 95 percent were over the age of 60. According to statista.com, “Of the 63.5 thousand coronavirus deaths subject of this study, more than 85 percent were patients aged 70 years and older. Among that demographic, most of the deaths involved citizens over 80 years old who had pre-existing conditions.”
With 23 percent of its population 65 or older, Italy has the oldest population in Europe and puts it just behind Japan for the world’s oldest country.
SPAIN. Salvador Illa, Spain’s health minister, announced last week Madrid will form a registry that lists residents who refuse to take a coronavirus vaccine as the country re-entered the category of “extreme risk” for infection.
“What we will have is a registry that will also be shared with our European partners… of those who have been offered it and rejected it.
The Guardian reported that the vaccine is optional in the country and pointed out there is some skepticism among residents to take the vaccine. Only 40.5 percent said they would be willing to be vaccinated immediately.
GERMANY. Chancellor Angela Merkel is preparing to meet with over a dozen state premiers today to discuss Berlin’s response to the surge in COVID cases that have resulted in a record number of daily deaths last week, according to a report in Deutsche Welle.
The paper reported it is expected these officials will urge Merkel to implement new lockdown measures to combat the virus’ spread.
“The lockdown must be extended until the end of January,” Markus Söder, the Bavarian State premier, said in an interview. “Premature easing would set us far back.”
TRENDPOST: To date, the country of 84 million had a total of 35,632 deaths since the outbreak’s onset. As we have reported, this compares to New York State, with a population of 19.5 million, where 38,561 people died from the virus.
Yet, despite having a population a quarter the size of Germany’s and registering 3,000 more virus deaths, New York’s Governor Cuomo is saluted by the media as a champion in winning the COVID War.
As we have reported, as with much of the world, those dying from the virus are “grandparents” and those suffering from 2.6 pre-existing chronic conditions.
The average age of a COVID victim in Germany, depending on the available data, ranges between 77 to 82 years old.
Therefore, rather than lock down the entire nation, destroying businesses lives, and livelihoods, Germany, as with the rest of the world, should be advising those most at risk to take strict precautions.
TURKEY. Turks have been growing increasingly desperate as the lockdown orders have taken a heavy toll on the nation, with 25 percent of the country saying they might not be able to meet their basic needs.
Beyond the domestic economic devastation caused by the draconian measures, travel restrictions and curfews have crimped the country’s important hospitality sector.
With over 46 million international tourists in 2019, according to the OECD iLibrary, some 7.7 percent of the nation’s total employment is from tourism.
Battered by double-digit inflation, the Turkish lira is down more than 30 percent against the dollar this year. With the nation’s foreign reserves badly depleted, Moody’s Investor Service warns the nation faces a balance of payments crisis.
Ozgur Akbas, the owner of a tobacco shop in Istanbul, told The New York Times that many of his friends have been forced to close their shops. He said many have grown desperate and are on the “verge of suicide.”
BELGIUM. At least 26 residents at a retirement home in Belgium died from COVID after it was revealed that a volunteer Santa Claus who visited the facility tested positive for the virus.
The Guardian reported that photographs emerged from the 6 December visit showing residents at the facility in Mol, which is near Antwerp, not wearing face masks during the visit. The report said most of the transmission came from the same source.
TRENDPOST: While The Guardian did note that of Belgium’s 11,066 COVID deaths, more than half were retirement home residents, as we have emphasized, the fact of who is dying and why are buried or ignored by the mainstream media.
And, again, to young people, this is an old folk’s disease. Thus, they want to break loose and have fun… and will break the laws to do so.
