Rising unemployment and continuous struggling among citizens to make ends meet, governments all over the world are wrestling with how and when to ease the restrictions that are designed to control the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mandatory lockdowns to reduce the spread of the pandemic that has infected more than 2.2 million people so far, have brought hardship around the globe.
In a joint statement, a group of 13 countries – Brazil, South Korea, Singapore, Italy, France Indonesia, Canada, Britain, Peru, Germany, Turkey,Mexico, and Morocco called for global cooperation to reduce the economic challenges and the threatening economic impacts of the pandemic.
Even though there have been some tentative signs too, showing that preventive measures are working, the rate of new infections has slowed down across Europe due to the lockdowns.
In France and Spain, some field hospitals have been dismantled, while in Germany, the number of people infected by each person fell below for the first time.
Despite the mounting economic toll, most governments and public health officials are still cautious about relaxing the shutdowns.
The Italian government’s decree is still favoring shutting down nonessential industries and businesses, but health experts are still advising gradual easing in the country.
Some Asian nations including Singapore and Japan who recently appeared to have controlled the outbreak, witnessed a fresh surge in the cases; around 10,000 cases were found at Japan’s toll.
Iran, one of the hardest hits of the virus coupled with international sanctions, allowed some businesses in the capital to re-open Saturday after weeks of lockdown.
South Korea’s health minister said that new guidelines could be issued that officials would allow people to resume “certain levels of economic and social activity.”
Protesters in several U.S. states fed up with the non-economic friendly restrictions, and have taken to the streets.
Florida and Texas are the first Republican governors who took steps toward easing restrictions.
In Texas, state parks and stores selling curbside and nonessential surgery are decided to reopen and in Florida, municipalities decided to reopen beaches and parks, only with safety precautions.
