COVID lockdowns - The African Mirror

Apr

2021

Guatemala blocks travel from Brazil, UK and South Africa

GUATEMALA will restrict entry to visitors who have recently been to Brazil, the United Kingdom and South Africa in an effort to control a jump in coronavirus cases, President Alejandro Giammattei has announced. The measure will go into effect on Saturday and last through April 30, applying to tourists who have been to those countries within the prior two weeks, Giammattei said in a public address. He noted that Guatemala had registered 5,813 new COVID-19 infections in the last five days, bringing the total in the Central American country to 210,667 confirmed cases. "That has triggered our alerts and forces…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

The silent epidemic: Abuse against Spanish women rises during lockdown

WORLD

CLARA-LAEILA LAUDETTE FEWER Spanish women were killed by their partner or ex-partner in 2020 than in previous years, but that statistic masks a rise in gender-based violence as COVID lockdowns left victims confined with their abusers, rights groups and officials say. Emails to abuse helplines soared nearly six-fold in April, the first full month of Spain's lockdown. "Control-based violence - which doesn't murder, but is insidious and devastating - grew, because violent partners already had women under their physical control," Victoria Rosell, the ministry's top official on gender abuse issues, told reporters on Wednesday. In 2020 overall, calls to the…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Pope criticises people going on holiday to flee COVID lockdowns

RELIGION

POPE Francis has condemned people who had gone abroad on holiday to escape coronavirus lockdowns, saying they needed to show greater awareness of the suffering of others. Speaking after his weekly noon blessing, Francis said he had read newspaper reports of people catching flights to flee government curbs and seek fun elsewhere. "They didn't think about those who were staying at home, of the economic problems of many people who have been hit hard by the lockdown, of the sick people. (They thought) only about going on holiday and having fun," the pope said. "This really saddened me," he said…