lockdown – The Philadelphia Observer

Musicians Playing Through the Lockdown, to One Listener at a Time

Juan Ignacio — Thu, 11 Jun 2020 12:38:37 +0000

Photographs by Laetitia Vancon

Patrick Kingsley, an international correspondent, and Laetitia Vancon, a photojournalist, are driving more than 3,700 miles to explore the reopening of the European continent after coronavirus lockdowns. Read all their dispatches.

STUTTGART, Germany — Atop a hill beside a vineyard, a woman sat down a few yards from a stranger holding a double bass. She sat in silence for a minute, trying to hold his gaze.

It was hard looking him in the eye. She’d spent weeks staring at screens, largely in isolation. Human contact felt intense, strange. After 30 or 40 seconds, she glanced away.

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But then the musician raised his bow. The air began to hum with the deep chords of the instrument. She began to relax.

He had picked a version of an English folk song — an adaptation of “Greensleeves.” She realized what it was, and its origins. In her reverie, it felt like an homage to her time in England, where she had spent part of her life

She suddenly felt overwhelmed.

During two months of lockdown, her amateur choir practices had been canceled. A concert she’d planned to see had been postponed. But here on a hill above Stuttgart, a virtuoso musician was playing a piece — and only Claudia Brusdeylins, a 55-year-old publicist for a renewable energy research group, could hear it.

“I just felt recognized,” Ms. Brusdeylins said later.

To circumvent the restrictions enforced on society by the pandemic, cultural institutions have mostly turned to the internet. Museums have held online panels, theaters have streamed plays on their websites, and orchestras have uploaded their back catalogs.

Source: Musicians Playing Through the Lockdown, to One Listener at a Time

Juan Ignacio — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 12:02:50 +0000

A handful of EU countries are beginning to ease lockdown restrictions — but not everyone’s happy.

Spaniards working in the industrial and construction sector are starting to head back to work, while Italy, Austria and Denmark all have plans this week to partially release some confinement measures.

In Spain, which after Italy has seen more deaths from the virus than any other European country, the government is allowing some workers to return to their jobs from Monday and Tuesday. Most Spaniards, however, are expected to remain at home, as schools and restaurants remain shut, with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez noting in a message on Sunday that the country is not in a de-escalation phase.

The country’s health ministry issued guidance over the weekend for those returning to work, recommending that workers bike or walk to work if possible. Authorities also began on Monday handing out face masks to people boarding public transport. The government said it would be handing out 10 million masks in total over the coming days.

The health impact of the decision — which will mean people heading back on to public transport potentially in large numbers — on the spread of the virus will not be apparent for a few days or weeks. Nevertheless, the decision has sparked a public debate, with some experts describing the move as premature.

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Pablo Casado, leader of the main Spanish opposition Partido Popular, warned on Sunday that a general state of chaos over the arrangements could put people at risk.

“Many employees return to work tomorrow, once again amid general confusion,” he said, adding that “the government must guarantee workers’ safety so that they can return to work without risk.”

The pro-independence Catalan regional President Quim Torra, meanwhile, calledthe central government’s decision “reckless and imprudent.”

Italy, meanwhile, has opted to extend its strict lockdown measures — though as of Tuesday there will be a limited reopening, with businesses such as bookshops and stores selling children’s clothing, as well as forestry and timber production, allowed to resume operations.

Some regions, however, have resisted the slight relaxation. In Lombardy, the worst-hit region, the regional government said bookstores and stationery stores would not be opened as essential goods of that type can be bought in supermarkets already.

Austria will on Tuesday allow some non-essential shops to reopen. And in Denmark, some day care institutions and elementary schools will also resume activities this week. The Czech Republic last week already allowed a limited number of businesses, such as bicycle stores and building material shops, to reopen.

Source: Europe begins tentative easing of coronavirus lockdown

Ground zero: China to lift lockdown on Wuhan

Juan Ignacio — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 12:19:25 +0000

March 24, 2020 Edit

China has announced it will lift the lockdown on Wuhan, the city at the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, on April 8, marking a significant milestone in its battle against the deadly outbreak.

The date comes more than two months after the city was first sealed off from the outside world, in an unprecedented bid to contain the fast spreading virus. Similar lockdown measures will be lifted Wednesday for other cities in Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital, provincial authorities announced Tuesday.

The easing of travel restrictions follows a significant reduction in new infections in Hubei, with new cases dropping to zero for five consecutive days from March 19 — down from thousands of daily new cases at the height of the epidemic in February. On Tuesday, the province reported one new case in Wuhan, a doctor at the Hubei General Hospital.

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Staff members line up as they prepare to disinfect Wuhan Railway Station on Tuesday, March 24.

The province has accounted for the majority of infections and deaths in China, with 67,801 cases and 3,160 fatalities reported as of Monday.

In a precursor to the types of measures that would later be introduced throughout the world, Wuhan, a city of some 11 million people, was placed under state-imposed lockdown on January 23, with all flights, trains and buses canceled and highways entrances blocked. Other cities in Hubei province soon followed suit, adopting similar restrictions.

The sweeping measures, which have affected more than 60 million Hubei residents, have been heralded in China as having allowed the country to turn a corner in its fight against the outbreak. In a major show of confidence, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Wuhan on March 10, three months after the outbreak was first detected in the city.

Source: Ground zero: China to lift lockdown on Wuhan