Tag Archives: lockdowns

Crime has retailers locking down products from baby formula to underwear causing frustration to shoppers

Underwear-lockdown

Important Takeaways:

  • Frustrated shoppers are forced to wait as long as 40 MINUTES to get their hands on basic groceries like toothpaste, baby formula and vitamins at Walmart and Target as retailers lock up products to combat soaring crime
  • Shoppers are being forced to wait as long as 40 minutes to buy basic essentials like baby formula and body wash as major retailers lock up products to counter skyrocketing rates of theft.
  • Reporters from Inside Edition visited five Targets, five Walmarts and five CVS stores in New York and New Jersey and timed how long it took for employees to retrieve different products from glass casings.
  • ‘Everything’s locked up,’ journalist Lisa Guerrero said as she stepped inside a Target in Manhattan where baby formulas, razors and cleaning products were kept under lock and key.
  • ‘They locked up the underwear,’ she quipped. ‘And the socks.’
  • In May, Target CEO Brian Cornell admitted that theft was costing the chain millions.
  • The company predicted $500million more in losses from theft this year on top of the $750 million in losses it incurred during its last fiscal year – meaning losses could top $1.2billion by the end of 2023.

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Trump points out return of Covid lockdowns, mask mandates just in time for election

Trump we will not comply

Important Takeaways:

  • “The left-wing lunatics are trying very hard to bring back covid lockdowns and mandates with all of their sudden fear mongering about the new variants that are coming,” Trump said in a video message released on Thursday. “Gee whiz, you know what else is coming? An election.”
  • “They want to restart the covid hysteria so they can justify more lockdowns, more censorship, more illegal drop boxes, more mail-in ballots and trillions of dollars in payoffs to their political allies heading into the 2024 election,” he continued, adding “does that sound familiar?”
  • “To every Covid tyrant who wants to take away our freedom, hear these words: we will not comply, so don’t even think about it. We will not shut down our schools; we will not accept your lockdowns; we will not abide by your mask mandates; and we will not tolerate your vaccine mandates,” Trump continued in Thursday’s video.

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Breaking Point: Anger over Beijing’s Lockdowns and Zero-Covid Policy as protests ignite across country

Luke 21:11 “There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.”

Important Takeaways:

  • China’s Covid revolution: Three years of growing anger over Beijing’s obsession with failing lockdowns is exploding across the country…. but Xi ‘will crack down and punish protesters severely’
  • Protests against Xi Jinping and his zero-Covid policy are sweeping across China
  • Explosion of anger as three years of failing lockdowns became too much to bear.
  • Hundreds took to streets in an unprecedented display of anger against his rule
  • Experts warn crackdown is ‘inevitable’ with activists facing ‘severe punishment’
  • Clashes between activists and police have already taken place in Shanghai – which suffered through a months-long Covid lockdown earlier this year – with BBC cameraman Edward Lawrence arrested and beaten by officers in the city.

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400 Million under Lockdown or Partial Lockdown across China

Revelations 6:8 “And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.”

Important Takeaways:

  • The biggest risk to the global economy no one is talking about
  • Nearly 400 million people across 45 cities in China are under full or partial lockdown as part of China’s strict zero-Covid policy. Together they represent 40%, or $7.2 trillion, of annual gross domestic product for the world’s second-largest economy, according to data from Nomura Holdings.
  • Analysts are ringing warning bells, but say investors aren’t properly assessing how serious the global economic fallout might be from these prolonged isolation orders.
  • Most alarming is the indefinite lockdown in Shanghai, a city of 25 million and one of China’s premiere manufacturing and export hubs.
  • The quarantines there have led to food shortages, inability to access medical care, and even reported pet killings. They’ve also left the largest port in the world understaffed.

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US officials ordered to leave Shanghai as new surge in Covid cases expand

Revelations 6:8 “And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.”

Important Takeaways:

  • U.S. State Department orders all non-emergency government staff in Shanghai to leave as Covid surges
  • The U.S. State Department has ordered all non-emergency government staff and their family members in Shanghai to leave as Covid surges.
  • The department had issued a travel advisory on April 8 warning U.S. citizens about “arbitrary enforcement of local laws” and Covid-19 restrictions.
  • On Saturday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said the U.S. characterization of China’s Covid policy was a “groundless accusation” and that the Chinese side has assisted foreign diplomats and consular staff on Covid-related issues as much as policy allowed.

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Rapper warns of communism

1 Timothy 4:1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons

Important Takeaways:

  • Rapper Pitbull issues warning about communism, says Fidel Castro would have been jealous of lockdowns
  • ‘My family comes from communism, they fled communism, they had everything taken away from them’
  • Pitbull talked about big tech censorship and likened it to communism.
  • “If anybody is not a part of the narrative we gonna take it off online… which to me smells like… communism,”

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U.S. drug overdose deaths rise 30% to record during pandemic

By Julie Steenhuysen and Daniel Trotta

(Reuters) – A record number of Americans died of drug overdoses last year as pandemic lockdowns made getting treatment difficult and dealers laced more drugs with a powerful synthetic opioid, according to data released on Wednesday and health officials.

U.S. deaths from drug overdoses leapt nearly 30% to more than 93,000 in 2020 – the highest ever recorded.

“During the pandemic, a lot of (drug) programs weren’t able to operate. Street-level outreach was very difficult. People were very isolated,” said Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, a health policy expert at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

Arman Maddela, 24, recognizes he was at risk of being among those who died. A recovering addict, he relapsed during the pandemic and was using fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is 80-100 times stronger than morphine, and heroin.

“It’s so easy to pass away from using drugs nowadays, just because of the amount of fentanyl out there. A lot of people in the past were able to relapse and come back. But nowadays, that’s not the case,” he said.

He checked himself into rehab a second time in October. “I actually know quite a few people personally that have unfortunately passed away since then from overdose,” said Maddela, who lives in Encinitas, California.

While overdose deaths were already increasing in the months preceding the COVID-19 outbreak, the latest data show a stark acceleration during the pandemic.

Social distancing reduced access to programs that offer needle exchange, opioid substitution therapy or safe injection sites where observers could deploy the overdose antidote Narcan, leaving many addicts to die alone.

Moreover, during stay-at-home orders, addicts were unable to attend support group meetings in person or visit their therapists for live one-on-one sessions.

Pandemic lockdowns and distancing likely contributed to the rise in overdose deaths in less obvious ways, too.

Isolation is known as a factor in anxiety and depression, said Kate Judd, program director at Shoreline Recovery Center, the San Diego rehab facility that treated Maddela. Those feelings can lead to drug abuse.

The drugs themselves became more deadly as well. Drug suppliers more frequently mixed fentanyl with cocaine and methamphetamine to boost their effects, said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health.

“The type of drugs that are now available are much more dangerous,” Volkow said. Closing national borders did not staunch the flow of fentanyl as hoped. Instead, it accelerated.

The deadly combination of events resulted in 93,331 overdose deaths in the 12 months ended in December 2020, compared with an estimated 72,151 deaths in 2019, according to provisional data from the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The data showed opioids were involved in 74.7% of overdose deaths, rising to 69,710 in 2020 from 50,963 in 2019.

“We do know the primary driver of the increase (in deaths) involves synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl,” Bob Anderson, chief of the Mortality Statistics Branch at the health statistics center, said.

Most U.S. states were swept by the trend, Anderson said, with the highest increases in overdose deaths seen in Vermont, up 57.6%; followed by Kentucky, up 54%; South Carolina, up 52%; West Virginia, up nearly 50%; and California, up 46%.

On a day-to-day basis, Sharfstein estimates that the United States is now seeing more overdose deaths than COVID-19 deaths.

“This is a different kind of crisis, and it’s not going to go away as quickly.”

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago and Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California, additional reporting by Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Caroline Humer and Cynthia Osterman)

WHO urges countries ‘not to lose gains’ by prematurely lifting COVID-19 measures

ZURICH/BENGALARU (Reuters) -World Health Organization emergencies head Michael Ryan urged countries on Wednesday to use extreme caution when lifting COVID-19 restrictions so as “not to lose the gains you’ve made”.

Ryan’s comments come as England, hosting Europe’s soccer championships, prepares to end many COVID-19 restrictions on July 19, European countries ease travel curbs and Indian states relax their lockdowns, despite accelerating infections with the Delta variant worldwide.

Ryan said that while every nation must decide for itself, individuals including the unvaccinated must take responsibility to protect themselves and others, to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed by another pandemic wave.

“The idea that everyone is protected, and it’s ‘Kumbaya’ and everything goes back to normal, I think right now is a very dangerous assumption anywhere in the world, and it’s still a dangerous assumption in the European environment,” he told reporters during a meeting from Geneva.

“We would ask governments at this moment not to lose the gains you’ve made.”

Ahead of reopening, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the epidemiological situation may be aided by the arrival of summer and school holidays.

Ryan said he believed British scientists were “very aware of the threat represented by variants, especially the Delta variant” and would open cautiously.

The WHO also urged countries including the United States and Switzerland that are vaccinating 12- to 15-year-old children to instead donate doses to the vaccine sharing program COVAX, to improve access for healthcare workers and the elderly in low-income countries.

“It’s not the pediatric population that is suffering the most,” said WHO vaccine expert Ann Lindstrand. “It is the adults, it is the medical risk groups.”

(Reporting by John Miller in Zurich and Manas Mishra in Bengaluru, Editing by Michael Shields and Nick Tattersall)

Indonesia health minister leads push for stricter COVID curbs

By Tom Allard and Kate Lamb

JAKARTA (Reuters) -Indonesia’s health minister is leading a push for stricter controls as coronavirus cases surge to unprecedented levels, according to sources familiar with government discussions. Coronavirus infections in Indonesia have tripled in the past three weeks, overwhelming hospitals in the capital Jakarta and on the heavily populated island of Java.

On Monday, Indonesia recorded 20,694 new infections, bringing the weekly total to 131,553. Three sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that health minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin had urged government leaders to enact tougher social restriction measures but his request was overruled. He is continuing to push his case, they said. One of the sources, who declined to be named as they were not authorized to speak on the matter, said government meetings on the issue would take place this week. The health minister’s position was supported by the country’s tourism minister Sandiaga Uno, who confirmed to Reuters that a tougher lockdown was under active consideration. “I am encouraging a tougher lockdown (but) we would need to provide the basic necessities for the people,” he said. “If the number of cases is increasing, then we need to adjust very quickly. “Citing the need to safeguard Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, Indonesia has mostly rejected the lockdowns imposed by its neighbors and large developing countries like India.

Instead, Jakarta has opted for social restrictions targeting villages and neighborhoods deemed “red zones” due to high infections, a policy known as PPKM Mikro. Last week, the head of the country’s COVID-19 taskforce, coordinating economy minister Airlangga Hartarto, banned religious activities at houses of worship, closed schools and bars and required offices, restaurants, cafes and malls to operate at 25% capacity in red zones for two weeks. When Reuters enquired if the health minister wanted greater curbs on social mobility, a ministry spokesperson replied “in accordance with the current policy”. A spokesman for the president said: “Until now, we still have PPKM Mikro, empirically it is still very effective to control small areas.”

INEFFECTIVE

The Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) on Sunday called on the government to implement large-scale restrictions, especially across the island of Java, home to more than half the country’s population of 270 million people. The IDI said that 24 regencies and cities had reported isolation bed capacity at 90% full, while intensive care units in several areas were nearing 100% capacity and 30 doctors had died in June from COVID-19. “If there is no firm intervention we will be like India,” said Dr. Adib Khumaidi, head of the IDI’s mitigation team, noting the surge in cases in the South Asian nation in April and May and the “collapse” of its healthcare system. Public health experts have warned the government’s current policy for social restrictions can’t be fully implemented by poorly resourced local officials and don’t account for people moving between red zones and other areas. How villages and neighborhoods are designated red zones is opaque and undermined by low rates of testing and contact tracing that masks the true extent of Indonesia’s overall infection rate, they said. One source said that, among several options, presidential advisers were examining the lockdowns in India, where a fivefold increase in infections in little over a month was fully reversed in a similar time frame. If guidelines followed by Indian states were adopted in Indonesia, lockdowns would be introduced in 31 of its 34 provinces where positivity rates are at 10 per cent or higher. Adjusting for population size, Indonesia has about 40% of the intensive care beds in India, according to a study last year by Princeton University. On Friday, the health minister announced plans for 7,000 more hospital beds in Jakarta dedicated to COVID-19 patients. Uno said at least 15 hotels close to hospitals with up to 2,000 beds also have been identified as places where patients with milder symptoms could be treated. Meanwhile, Indonesia’s food and drug agency on Monday approved the COVID-19 vaccine made by China’s Sinovac Biotech for children aged 12-17.

(Reporting by Tom Allard in Jakarta and Kate Lamb in Sydney; Additional reporting in Jakarta by Agustinus Beo Da Costa and Stanley Widianto; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Bernadette Baum)

Factbox: Back to pubs, gyms and movies: plotting the return to normal

(Reuters) – As the COVID-19 vaccine rollout gains momentum, many countries are planning a gradual return to normal, opening borders and letting people back into restaurants, shops and sports venues after more than a year of on-off lockdowns.

Here are some of their plans, in alphabetical order:

BRITAIN

Britain expects to fully reopen pubs, restaurants, nightclubs and other hospitality venues on July 19.

Non-essential retailers in England reopened on April 12 along with pubs and restaurants operating outdoors. Indoor hospitality, cinemas, theatres and sports halls reopened on May 17 with capacity restrictions. Britain also resumed international travel, with quarantine rules still in place for most arrivals.

CANADA

Canadians and permanent residents who have received two vaccination doses will be exempt from quarantine when returning to the country from July 5.

COLOMBIA

Colombia on June 3 approved reopening most large events like concerts and sports matches with 25% capacity for cities where intensive care units occupancy rates are below 85%.

From July 15, international travelers no longer need to present a negative PCR test and in-person classes will resume for pre-school children to university students.

FRANCE

France ended a national night-time curfew on June 20, 10 days earlier than initially scheduled, while face masks will soon no longer be required outdoors.

Nightclubs can re-open from July 9.

On June 9, France fully reopened its cafes, bars, and restaurants. Sports halls, spas, swimming pools, and casinos also resumed operation.

Shops, museums, cinemas and theatres reopened on May 19.

GERMANY

Germany eased restrictions on those fully vaccinated or recovered from the virus from May 9, lifting curfews and quarantine rules as well as the obligation to provide a negative test result to visit a hairdresser, a zoo or to go shopping.

Since May 12, travelers have been able to enter the country without the need to quarantine, except those arriving from risk areas.

General travel warning for risk regions that have a seven-day coronavirus incidence of below 200 will be lifted starting July 1.

Germany is on target for outdoor concerts this summer, with social distancing and COVID-19 testing for attendees, and fans should be back at soccer matches in August.

A rule which forces companies to allow working from home will be lifted on June 30.

INDIA

On June 14, all New Delhi’s shops and malls re-opened although bars, gyms, salons, cinemas and parks remain shut.

Federally protected monuments opened to tourists on June 16.

Some businesses in Tamil Nadu were allowed to bring back 50% of employees and salons and liquor shops reopened. Bus services resumed on June 21.

In Bengaluru, the capital of Karnataka state, authorities allowed the partial reopening of businesses, though strict night and weekend curfews remained in place.

From June 7, the state of Maharashtra allowed malls, movie theatres, restaurants and offices to open regularly in districts where the positivity rate has fallen below 5%.

ISRAEL

Israel reopened borders to tourists on May 23. Under a pilot program, it gave the green light to visits by 20 groups of between five and 30 tourists from countries including the United States, Britain and Germany. It hopes to let individual tourists in from July.

From June 15, citizens may stop wearing masks indoors, except for unvaccinated patients or staff in medical facilities, people en route to quarantine, and passengers on commercial flights.

ITALY

Italian coffee bars, restaurants, cinemas and theatres partially reopened in most regions on April 26. Indoor service at restaurants resumed from June 1.

Italy lifted quarantine restrictions for travelers arriving from European and Schengen countries, as well as Britain and Israel, from May 15.

A nightly curfew was scrapped from June 21 and wearing masks outdoors will not be mandatory from June 28.

JAPAN

Japan eased curbs in nine prefectures including Tokyo from June 20, ahead of the Summer Olympics due to start in late July. Bars and restaurants now can serve alcohol until 7 p.m., but restaurants are still asked to shut by 8 p.m. Certain measures such as spectator limits at major events remain in place.

NETHERLANDS

Most group size limits will be lifted from June 26, as long as people can keep at least 1.5 meters apart. People will not be required to wear face masks anywhere except for public transport and airports, where distancing is not possible.

POLAND

Poland reopened shopping centers, hotels, restaurants cinemas, theatres and concert halls in May. Indoor dining, indoor sports facilities and swimming pools reopened on May 28.

Large indoor events with up to 50 people were allowed from May 28, a number that was tripled on June 6.

From June 13, churches can be filled up to 50% of capacity. Limits for concerts and sports events will be raised from June 26 to 50% of seats, while hotels can be filled to up to 75% capacity.

People who have been vaccinated are not counted in the capacity limits.

QATAR

From May 28, Qatar allowed leisure, education centers, restaurants, gyms, pools and salons to operate at limited capacity, but bans on weddings, conferences and exhibitions remain in place.

Local and international sporting events can take place with fully vaccinated fans in open-space venues at 30% capacity.

SINGAPORE

Singapore allowed dining at restaurants to resume from June 21, though it limits diners to groups of two. Gyms and fitness studios resumed indoor exercise for groups of up to two people.

SOUTH KOREA

From June 14, South Korea allows up to 4,000 people to attend concerts and other cultural shows. Sports stadiums can operate at 30% to 50% capacity, depending on the districts.

From July 1, fully vaccinated overseas visitors can apply for exemptions from mandatory two-week quarantine if they are visiting family or travelling for the purpose of business, academic or public interest.

Masks will no longer be required outdoors from July.

SPAIN

Curfews were lifted across most of Spain on May 9. From May 24, it allowed travel from low-risk non-EU countries without a negative PCR test. From June 7, vaccinated people from anywhere in the world could enter.

The country will lift a blanket obligation to wear masks outdoors from June 26.

THAILAND

Thailand said on June 16 it aims to fully reopen to visitors within 120 days. Some tourism centers will resume earlier, starting with a pilot reopening from July 1 on its most popular island, Phuket.

TURKEY

Sunday lockdowns and weekday curfews, as well as public transport restrictions, will be lifted on July 1. Music events, including concerts, will then be allowed until midnight.

UNITED STATES

On May 3, New York City allowed drinking at an indoor bar for the first time in months, days after Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city should reopen in full on July 1.

On June 15, the state of New York lifted all state-mandated restrictions, including capacity limits of 50% for retailers and 33% for gyms. Mitigation measures are still required in public transit and healthcare settings.

New York joined California, where most remaining crowd-capacity limits and physical distancing requirements were also lifted on June 15.

New York City and Los Angeles plan to fully reopen schools from September.

Chicago and Illinois fully reopened on June 11.

The states of New Jersey and Connecticut lifted most capacity restrictions on businesses, including retail stores, food services and gyms, on May 19.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on May 3 signed an executive order to end all local emergency measures.

(Compiled by Vladimir Sadykov, Dagmarah Mackos and Federica Urso; Editing by Milla Nissi and Gareth Jones)