Barely a week after imposing a lockdown on the unvaccinated, <keyword id="21177" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="austria" source="Orion">Austria</keyword> on Friday announced a full national <keyword id="8925953" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="covid-19-lockdown" source="Orion">Covid-19 lockdown</keyword> starting next week. Austria became the first country in the European Union to take such a measure in the face of the Covid-19 resurgence. Besides, it has also made vaccination mandatory from February 1, Euronews reported. The new measures announced by Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg on Friday morning will come into effect initially for 10 days starting Monday. Most stores will close, and cultural events will be cancelled. "We have to look reality in the face," Schallenberg was quoted as saying at a news conference. "We do not want a fifth wave. Nor do we want a sixth or seventh wave," the Chancellor said, as reported by public broadcaster ORF. After 10 days, the effects will be assessed and if Covid cases don't drop sufficiently, the lockdown can be extended to a maximum of 20 days. However, according to Austria's Health Minister, schools would remain open for those who need to go there, but all parents have been asked to keep their children at home if possible. The lockdown comes as Covid infections soared in Austria in recent weeks. Daily case numbers have trebled in November, touching over 15,000 on Thursday. According to the latest figures, the incidence rate was 990.7 cases per 100,000 people in the past week, and Health Minister Wolfgang Mackstein said imposing a lockdown was the "last resort". The country's per capita infection rate is also the highest so far this year. Hospitals have been overwhelmed with many new Covid patients, and deaths have been rising again, the report said. Last Monday, Vienna had announced a nationwide lockdown for about two million unvaccinated people. Under this, people aged 12 years and older were banned from going outside except for essential activities such as work, attending classes, essential shopping, or going for a walk. The country has 65 per cent people fully vaccinated against Covid-19 -- one of the lowest rates in Western Europe. Earlier this month, the World Health Organization (WHO) had warned that as Covid cases continue to mount in Europe and Central Asia, the regions are likely to see about 500,000 additional deaths before February 1. Hans Kluge, WHO's European Regional Director, attributed the increased risk to low mask use, vaccine hesitancy and spread of the more transmissible Delta variant. Many other European countries are also planning to reimpose restrictions in the wake of a steep rise in the number of cases, the BBC reported. Slovakia Prime Minister Eduard Heger has announced what he called a lockdown for the unvaccinated starting Monday. The country had reported a record 8,342 cases on Wednesday. The Czech government is also limiting access to a variety of services. The <keyword id="44173" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="netherlands" source="Orion">Netherlands</keyword> introduced a partial lockdown last weekend. German leaders have also agreed to introduce restrictions for unvaccinated people in areas with high Covid hospital admissions that would affect 12 of Germany's 16 states, the report said. Daily infections had hit a new German record of 52,826 on Wednesday. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/mindhouse-raises-6-million-in-seed-funding-led-by-binny-bansal/articleshow/87798613.cms">Flipkart's Binny Bansal bets on Zomato cofounder's two-year-old venture</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/farm-laws-timeline-important-milestones-from-their-enactment-to-withdrawal/slidelist/87795876.cms">Farm laws timeline – important milestones from their enactment to withdrawal</a>

COVID-19 situation worsens in Europe — Netherlands, Austria imposes full lockdown

David Visnjic/Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesA view of a deserted Graben Square amid coronavirus precautions in Vienna, Austria, on April 2, 2020.<ul class="summary-list"><li>Austrian officials plan to begin incrementally loosening coronavirus restrictions starting with small shops on April 14 and larger businesses from May 1.</li><li>The country's government took aggressive steps to put the nation of nearly 9 million people on lockdown in mid-March.</li><li>"Austria has reacted faster and more restrictively than other countries. So we have been able to prevent the worst from happening," said Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.</li><li>Denmark and the Czech Republic are considering similar steps, but Hans Kluge, of the World Health Organization, warned that "now is not the time to relax measures" but to "double" down.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul>Some governments are wrestling with decisions that involve putting millions of people on lockdown as the coronavirus continues to escalate - Austria is not one of them.Instead, the nation's leaders are cautiously tiptoeing toward gradually lifting restrictions that were enforced in mid-March in response to the COVID-19 outbreak in <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/italy-falling-apart-coronavirus-pandemic-doctors-tough-choices-2020-3">neighboring Italy</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/austrian-officials-may-be-sued-over-coronavirus-response-ski-resort-2020-4">its own ski resorts</a>. Schools and non-essential businesses were closed, and people were urged to work from home.It's because the Austrian government issued social distancing measures early on in Europe's coronavirus fight that it was able to "flatten the curve" and spare the country's nearly 9 million residents from the brunt of the illness.It also boosted local face mask production to avoid depending on imports of the personal protective equipment, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/04/04/world/europe/04reuters-health-coronavirus-austria.html">The New York Times</a>."Austria has reacted faster and more restrictively than other countries," <a href="https://www.bundeskanzleramt.gv.at/bundeskanzleramt/nachrichten-der-bundesregierung/2020/bundeskanzler-kurz-stufenplan-fuer-schrittweise-oeffnung-von-geschaeften-nach-ostern-aber-massnahmen-weiter-befolgen.html">Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said in a press release</a>. "So we have been able to prevent the worst from happening. This circumstance now gives us the opportunity to get out of this crisis faster, but only if we all continue to consistently adhere to the measures." In all, Austria has confirmed more than 13,200 coronavirus cases and 295 deaths as of Thursday. At least 5,240 people have recovered, based on data compiled by <a href="https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6">Johns Hopkins University</a>.Austria's number of infections was doubling every three days when the lockdown began, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/world/europe/coronavirus-lockdowns-restrictions.html">The Times</a> found. Now, the country's new infections have been declining since March 30, based on information from the statistics website <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/austria/">Worldometer</a>.WorldometerWorldometer data shows a downturn trend in Austria's daily new cases.On Monday, Austrian leaders announced that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/austria-denmark-lifting-coronavirus-lockdown-experts-warn-flare-up-2020-4">the lockdown will be loosened incrementally</a>.Small shops, hardware stores, and gardens will reopen on April 14, and larger businesses will follow on May 1, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/austria-coronavirus-lockdown-end/2020/04/06/b4dedd8e-7805-11ea-a311-adb1344719a9_story.html">The Washington Post</a>.Hotels, restaurants, and businesses like gyms and hair salons which involve people being at close quarters to one another aren't likely to receive permission to resume business until mid-May or even June, The Times said.On Easter, which will be celebrated on April 12, a maximum of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/04/04/world/europe/04reuters-health-coronavirus-austria.html">five people will be allowed to be in one room</a> at the same time - unless they live in the same house.Upon announcing what he called "a step-by-step resurrection" of Austria's economy, Kurz stressed, "We are not out of the woods."Public events are slated to pick up in July, while schools will remain shuttered until fall and there's no word on when international travel will be allowed, The Post reported.Andreas Gebert/Getty ImagesGerman police officers stand guard at a checkpoint at the Austrian border, where crossings have been severely restricted in an effort to rein in the spread of the coronavirus.Although officials are hoping to stimulate economic activity, people who emerge from their homes to visit shops or use public transit must continue to cover their mouths and noses. And can expect to be asked to stay at least six feet away from anyone around them for several more months, per The Times.The government plans to pay close attention to the effects of these looser restrictions, Kurz said, noting, "We will very closely monitor the number of new infections and will immediately pull the emergency brake if need be," according to The Times.Denmark and the Czech Republic are mulling similar moves, but the World Health Organization's director for Europe, Hans Kluge, issued a warning on Wednesday, the Times said. Some countries are seeing "positive signs," he acknowledged, but it's too early to begin lifting containment measures."Now is not the time to relax measures," he said at a news conference. "It is the time to once again double and triple our collective efforts to drive toward suppression with the whole support of society."For her part, the head of virology at the Medical University of Vienna, Elisabeth Puchhammer-Stöckl, told the Times that the world continues to be "in unchartered territory" and will need to learn to navigate this new normal in real-time."We are still living in a pandemic," she said. "This virus is not going anywhere."Do you have a personal experience with the coronavirus you'd like to share? Or a tip on how your town or community is handling the pandemic? Please email <a href="mailto:covidtips@businessinsider.com">covidtips@businessinsider.com</a> and tell us your story.Get the latest <a href="/coronavirus-business-impact">coronavirus business &amp; economic impact analysis</a> from Business Insider Intelligence on how COVID-19 is affecting industries. <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-effects-census-count-vaccine-2020-4">The coronavirus could affect the accuracy of the 2020 census - and that could decide who gets a vaccine</a></h3>

Italy and Austria share a border, but while one nation grapples with crippling coronavirus deaths, the other is preparing to lift its lockdown

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A variant of <keyword id="8763838" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="covid-19">COVID-19</keyword> that spread on five <keyword id="4662" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Mink">mink</keyword> farms in <keyword id="49968" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Denmark">Denmark</keyword> and infected 12 people is "most likely" extinct, <keyword id="118269" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Danish">Danish</keyword> authorities said Thursday.</li><li>Two weeks ago, Denmark ordered the cull of its entire mink population after it was found the mutated variant may weaken the effects of a COVID-19 vaccine.</li><li>The cull has sparked a political crisis after the government admitted it lacked a legal basis. One minister has resigned.</li><li>No cases of the variant have been detected since September 15. But other mink farms in the country may remain infected with other strains of COVID-19, the country's infectious diseases body said.</li><li>On Thursday, authorities in Ireland told all mink farms in the country to cull their minks, with the country's chief medical officer ordering it "as a matter of urgency."</li></ul>A mutated strain of COVID-19 that spread on mink farms across Denmark is "most likely" extinct, the country's infectious diseases body the State Serum Institute (SSI) announced Thursday.Earlier in November, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/denmark-mink-covid-19-mutation-cull-minks-restart-coronavirus-pandemic-2020-11">Danish authorities ordered the cull of all minks in the country</a> after COVID-19 outbreaks were linked to some of the 1,200 Danish mink farms. The country has an estimated 17 million minks. The mutated strain could potentially weaken the effects of a future COVID-19 vaccine, authorities said at the time, and the country's top epidemiologist said that in a "worst-case scenario, the pandemic will restart, this time in Denmark."But the strain in question, known as the "cluster 5 mink variant," has been contained within five mink farms in the north of the country, the SSI said in a <a href="https://www.sum.dk/Aktuelt/Nyheder/Coronavirus/2020/November/De-fleste-restriktioner-lempes-i-Nordjylland.aspx">statement</a>. It has only been identified in 12 people, and no cases of the variant have been detected since September 15."Therefore, we now assess that this variant is most likely no longer in circulation," Tyra Grove Krause, the head of the institute's infection epidemiology and prevention department, said Thursday.However, some mink farms may still remain infected with COVID-19 beyond the cluster 5 mutation.The number of mink farms infected with the virus increased in both the Central Jutland and Southern Denmark regions in early November, the SSI said, <a href="https://covid19.ssi.dk/-/media/cdn/files/notat-om-den-seneste-udvikling-af-sars-cov2-p-minkfarme-og-blandt-mennesker_181120.pdf?la=da">reaching 284 by November 18</a>.Since then, all minks on farms in these areas have been killed, the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration (FVST) said, but it noted that there are still 25 farms suspected to have unconfirmed cases of COVID-19."There is also a continuing increase in the number of COVID-19-infected people associated with mink production in the two regions," the SSI said.Nationally, the proportion of COVID-19 cases in humans that came from mink is falling, the institute said. In late October, this proportion fell from 6% to 5%, it said.The remaining 900 mink farms that didn't have COVID-19 cases among their populations had until midnight Thursday to cull their animals, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/19/danish-covid-mink-variant-very-likely-extinct-but-controversial-cull-continues">The Guardian reported</a>.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-coronavirus-will-change-biopharma-according-to-top-ceos-2020-5?r=gd-sub">CEOs of 5 top pharma and biotech companies share how coronavirus is permanently transforming the drug industry</a>On Wednesday, Denmark's Food and Agriculture Minister resigned after the government admitted it had no legal basis for ordering the mink cull. Opposition parties are calling for Prime Minister <keyword id="7800804" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Mette-Frederiksen">Mette Frederiksen</keyword> to follow suit.As Denmark's mink crisis, sometimes referred to as "minkgate," rages on, a new mink cull in the Republic of Ireland has begun.On Thursday, authorities told all mink farms in the country to cull their minks, with the country's chief medical officer ordering it <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55002583">"as a matter of urgency."</a>However, the authorities noted that <a href="https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/c3828-mink-farms-statement/">no COVID-19 cases have been found in Irish mink farms so far</a>, which are home to around 100,000 of the animals.That same day, <a href="https://www.folkhalsomyndigheten.se/nyheter-och-press/nyhetsarkiv/2020/november/myndigheter-utreder-fall-av-covid-19-inom-minknaringen/">Sweden's health agency said</a> some people who work on mink farms had tested positive for the <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword>. Authorities are investigating whether they were infected by the animals.Dr. Hans Kluge, the World Health Organization's regional director for Europe, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/19/world/the-culling-of-minks-in-denmark-prompts-a-political-crisis.html">described mink farms</a> on Thursday as "a reservoir where the coronavirus is thriving."

A mutated COVID-19 strain that spread on Danish mink farms is 'most likely' extinct, authorities say, as Ireland starts its own mink cull

Welcome back to <a href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/10-things-in-politics">10 Things in Politics</a>. <a href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/10-things-in-politics">Sign up here to receive this newsletter</a>. Plus, download Insider's app for news on the go - click <a href="https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id554260576">here for iOS</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.freerange360.mpp.businessinsider">here for Android</a>. Send tips to <a href="mailto:bgriffiths@insider.com">bgriffiths@insider.com</a>.Here's what we're talking about:<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fauci-guidance-trick-or-treat-celebrate-halloween-covid-coronavirus-mask-2021-10"></a><ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/will-supply-chain-crisis-ruin-christmas-holiday-season-hiring-seasonal-2021-11">Forget the supply chain ruining Christmas. Companies are prepping for a blowout holiday season.</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/barstool-sports-dave-portnoy-sex-choking-violent-stoolies">'I was literally screaming in pain': Young women say they met Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy for sex and it turned violent and humiliating</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-vaccine-rule-takes-effect-on-january-4-white-house-2021-11">Biden's COVID-19 vaccine-or-testing mandate for millions of workers is set to take effect January 4</a></li></ul>Programming note: There will be no <keyword id="11894123" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="newsletter" source="Orion">newsletter</keyword> Monday. We'll be back in your inbox Tuesday morning.1. THE ECONOMY: The holiday season may be more normal than you think. Hiring data shows that companies are betting on a return to pre-pandemic shopping trends. Logistics experts also say the supply-chain crisis is starting to fade, casting some doubt on predictions of shipping bottlenecks bedeviling holiday plans.Here's where things stand:Not everything is merry and bright: Online out-of-stock warnings are <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/holiday-shopping-out-of-stock-warnings-supply-shortages-adobe-spending-2021-10">nearly triple precrisis levels</a>, and prices continue to climb at their fastest pace in more than a decade. And the coronavirus pandemic has widened inequality, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/post-pandemic-economic-recovery-metrics-forecasts-inequality-growth-experts-2021-11">hitting vulnerable workers hard while making the rich richer</a>.<ul><li>Experts are wary of looking only at overall growth to assess the recovery: "There are a lot of people that are slipping through the cracks, that are being kicked out of their homes and their apartments that never did have much spending. Those people are not doing well and their children are not doing well, and that isn't being reported on very much," Sylvia Allegretto, a labor economist who is a cochair of the University of California at Berkeley's Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics, told Insider.</li></ul>But there are some good signs: US retailers, warehousing businesses, and transportation companies plan to hire 939,300 seasonal workers to handle holiday demand, the outplacement and business-coaching firm Challenger, Gray &amp; Christmas said in a report. That would be a record.<ul><li>And the supply-chain crisis may be easing: Jefferies economists led by Aneta Markowska said in a note published October 15 that the US was most likely "past the peak pinch," while one of the world's major warehousing CEOs just called a peak this week.</li></ul><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/will-supply-chain-crisis-ruin-christmas-holiday-season-hiring-seasonal-2021-11">Read more about what you can expect to see this holiday season.</a>2. House plans a marathon day of votes on Biden's agenda: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed votes on the two biggest pieces of President Joe Biden's domestic agenda to today after long-simmering disputes threatened to once again derail final passage, Politico reports. Lawmakers are now expected to vote on both the nearly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill and the $1.75 trillion social-spending plan later today. Pelosi and her leadership team spent the day pushing Democrats to support both pieces of legislation and trying to resolve concerns about the spending plan's drug pricing and immigration provisions as well as concerns about the lack of independent budget analysis. <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/11/04/pelosi-domestic-agenda-519503">Here's where things stand at the start of a pivotal day for Biden's presidency</a>.<div type="image" title="NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 14: (EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE) Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy visits SiriusXM Studios on November 14, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images)" height="2095" width="3000" msid="87537654" hostid="261"></div>3. Young women say sex with Dave Portnoy turned violent and humiliating: In a new Insider investigation, one woman described sex with the Barstool Sports founder as "traumatic," and two said he filmed and choked them without permission. More than two dozen people with direct experience with Portnoy and Barstool spoke with Insider. Three women - who had no professional connection to Portnoy - said that they had sex with him and that the encounters had taken a toll on their mental health. Portnoy, in two videos posted after the story was published, said he had never done "anything remotely nonconsensual" and described the deeply reported story as "the next iteration" of cancel culture. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/barstool-sports-dave-portnoy-sex-choking-violent-stoolies?_ga=2.202744983.722147671.1635703888-1311350499.1611066322">Read more from Insider's investigation</a>.4. Biden's COVID-19 vaccine-or-testing mandate is set to take effect January 4: The White House said the president's previously announced requirements for people working at companies with 100 or more employees would take effect after the new year. There's also a separate mandate - without an exception for testing - for healthcare workers at facilities participating in Medicare and Medicaid to be fully vaccinated. The rules for private businesses are expected to cover 84 million Americans, which combined with the healthcare-worker mandate would cover roughly two-thirds of the US workforce. In response, Republican attorneys general have threatened legal action. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-vaccine-rule-takes-effect-on-january-4-white-house-2021-11">Here's everything you need to know about the coming mandates</a>.5. Prosecutors say a source for the Steele dossier lied to the FBI: A Russia expert who contributed to the so-called Steele dossier was arrested as part of the special counsel John Durham's investigation into the origins of the FBI's Russia inquiry, The New York Times reports. Igor Danchenko, a Russian national who lives in the US, was charged with five felony counts of making false statements to the FBI. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/durham-indictment-casts-doubt-trump-pee-tape-steele-dossier-2021-11">This latest indictment also casts doubt on the origins of the Trump pee-tape rumor</a>.6. Veteran Democrat warns of a midterm bloodbath: Former Rep. Jim Moran was with Terry McAuliffe on the disappointing election night for the former Virginia governor. Moran told Insider that McAuliffe "was more surprised than he should have been" and that "some of the people that have been advising him were kind of deluding him." Moran, who is now a senior policy advisor and lobbyist at the firm Nelson Mullins Riley &amp; Scarborough LLP, warned of a coming "bloody" midterm election if Democrats failed to resolve their differences on Capitol Hill and Biden didn't return the party's focus to more centrist economic issues. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/democrats-worried-2022-midterms-virginia-terry-mcauliffe-biden-2021-11">More on the Virginia politician who is worried about 2022</a>.<div type="image" title="New York City mayoral candidate Eric Adams points his right finger in the air outside of his Brooklyn campaign office in Prospect Lefferts Gardens." height="1488" width="2500" msid="87537655" hostid="261"></div>7. Mayor-elect Eric Adams wants to be paid in bitcoin: Adams has been vocal about wanting to transform New York City into a bitcoin hub to compete with Miami for the status of the epicenter of the US crypto community. He said his first three paychecks would come via bitcoin. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nyc-mayor-eric-adams-bitcoin-paycheck-three-months-crypto-2021-11">More on how politicians are jockeying over the future of crypto</a>.8. WHO warns of major COVID-19 surge in Europe: The World Health Organization's European head, Hans Kluge, warned the continent could see 500,000 more deaths by February amid slowing vaccination rates and a relaxation of coronavirus-prevention measures, the BBC reports. Among the worrying numbers, Germany hit a record rise in its daily case count of more than 37,000, just 32% of Russians were fully vaccinated by the end of October, and Romania recorded its highest daily death toll, 591, this week. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59160525">More on why health officials are worried about the months ahead</a>.9. The most powerful New Jersey state senator lost to a Republican truck driver: Edward Durr, a truck driver for a local furniture chain, is now projected to have pulled off a monumental upset by dethroning Sen. Steve Sweeney, the New Jersey Senate president, The Times reports. Sweeney's loss drives home Democrats' struggles in 2021 elections, which nearly claimed Gov. Phil Murphy as well. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/04/nyregion/stephen-sweeney-durr-nj-election.html">The upset will leave a major hole in New Jersey politics</a>.10. The Rock says his production company won't use real guns on sets: Dwayne Johnson told Variety his production company, Seven Bucks Productions, would no longer use real guns in its productions in response to the fatal shooting of the cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film "Rust." Johnson added that his productions would switch to "rubber guns" and simulate gunfire in postproduction. <a href="https://www.insider.com/dwayne-johnson-production-company-bans-real-guns-rust-alec-baldwin-2021-11">"We're not going to worry about the dollars - we won't worry about what it costs," he said</a>.Today's trivia question: Which president's son was nearby when three presidential assassinations took place? Email your answer and a suggested question to me at <a href="mailto:bgriffiths@insider.com">bgriffiths@insider.com</a>.<ul><li>Yesterday's answer: William Henry Harrison was <a href="https://www.whitehousehistory.org/capturing-history">the first sitting US president to pose for a picture</a>. He posed for a daguerreotype portrait on the day of his inauguration before his death just 31 days later.</li></ul>

10 Things in Politics: Supply-chain disarray won't ruin the holidays

<ul class="summary-list"><li>President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to cut US funding to the World Health Organization. </li><li>"We're going to put a hold on money spent to the WHO. We're going to put a very powerful hold on it and we're going to see," Trump told a White House briefing.</li><li>Minutes later he said he had not yet made a final decision on the cut.</li><li>"They seem to be very China-centric," the president said of the WHO. "And they seem to always err on the side of China, and we fund it, so I want to look into it."</li><li>The US is the WHO's biggest funder, contributing 14% to its budget. A top WHO director said the height of the coronavirus pandemic is "not the time to cut back on funding."</li><li>Many critics have said that the WHO was too positive in its assessment of China's early response to the outbreak. </li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul>President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to cut US funding for the World Health Organization (WHO) after accusing it of pro-China bias."We're going to put a hold on money spent to the WHO. We're going to put a very powerful hold on it and we're going to see," Trump said at the White House coronavirus task force briefing that day.He made the announcement hours after attacking the organization in a tweet."The W.H.O. really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look," Trump <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1247540701291638787" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>."Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on," he added. "Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?"But later in the same briefing, Trump suggested that the funding cut had not been been decided, but repeated his accusation of pro-China bias.Here's the full exchange: Trump: We're just going to take a look at it. We fund it. And they seem to be, I said recently in social media, I said they seem to be very China-centric. That's a nice way of saying it. But they seem to be very China-centric. And they seem to always err on the side of China, and we fund it, so I want to look into it.Reporter: A quick follow-up on that. So, is the time to freeze funding to the WHO during a pandemic of this magnitude?Trump: No, maybe not. I mean, I'm not saying I'm going to do it, but we're going to look at it.Reporter: You did say that you were going to do it.Trump: No, I didn't. I said we're going to look at it, we're going to investigate it, we're going to look at it. But we will look at ending funding. Yeah. Because you know what? They called it wrong. And if you look back over the years even, everything seems to be very biased toward China. That's not right.Dr Hans Kluge, the WHO's Europe director, said in response to Trump's remarks Wednesday: "We are still in the acute phase of a pandemic so now is not the time to cut back on funding," <a href="https://news.trust.org/item/20200408095531-ed6ir/">according to Reuters</a>.Dr Bruce Aylward, senior advisor to the WHO's director general, also said it was important that the organization work with China in the early stages of the outbreak."It was absolutely critical in the early part of this outbreak to have full access to everything possible, to get on the ground and work with the Chinese to understand this," Aylward said, as cited by Reuters."This is what we did with every other hard hit country like Spain and had nothing to do with China specifically."Aylware was recently slammed for <a href="https://hongkongfp.com/2020/03/29/video-top-doctor-bruce-aylward-pretends-not-hear-journalists-taiwan-questions-ends-video-call/">appearing to ignore</a> a Hong Kong reporter's question about whether the WHO would reconsider Taiwan's membership.According to the <a href="http://open.who.int/2018-19/contributors/contributor">WHO's website</a>, the US is its single biggest funder, contributing 14% of its budget. The organization has played a key role in amassing data on the outbreak, and providing guidance on the measures best suited to slowing its spread. <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/01/30/275959/the-china-coronavirus-is-officially-an-international-emergency/">It criticized Trump's decision</a> to ban travelers from China in February, claiming the move could hurt economic growth. After spending the initial weeks of the outbreak downplaying it, Trump has more recently claimed that the US was able to stem the outbreak by acting relatively early to ban travelers from China. Other countries have since followed suit with travel bans of their own. Trump has also sought to highlight China's status as the source of the disease, calling the illness the "China virus," a move which has been criticized by the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/03/20/coronavirus-trump-chinese-virus/">WHO as stoking xenophobia</a>.The president has long attacked international institutions, which he has in the past blamed for seeking to exploit the US and undermine his "America First" policies. But Trump has not been alone in criticizing the WHO's response to the pandemic, with <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/03/boss-supported-china-now-giving-nation-much-credit-coronavirus/">many critics claiming</a> that while the organization was praising China's response to the outbreak, the country was suppressing key data on the extent of the problem. Do you have a personal experience with the coronavirus you'd like to share? Or a tip on how your town or community is handling the pandemic? Please email <a href="mailto:covidtips@businessinsider.com">covidtips@businessinsider.com</a> and tell us your story.And get the latest <a href="/coronavirus-business-impact">coronavirus analysis and research</a> from Business Insider Intelligence on how COVID-19 is impacting businesses.

Trump threatened to cut off funding to the WHO, saying 'they seem to always err on the side of China' even though 'we fund it'

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">Coronavirus</keyword> cases are rising across <keyword id="28249" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="europe">Europe</keyword>, particularly among younger groups, the World Health Organization said Monday.</li><li>With many European nations <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/countries-on-lockdown-coronavirus-italy-2020-3">reopening bars, restaurants, and schools</a>, young people have more opportunities to socialize.</li><li>But people may also be experiencing "pandemic fatigue" that encourages them to exercise riskier behavior, according to a <a href="https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/335820/WHO-EURO-2020-1160-40906-55390-eng.pdf">recent WHO report</a>. </li></ul>Scientists warned the world this spring: Nations could see a second, larger wave of coronavirus cases in the fall as they relaxed lockdown restrictions. That worst-case scenario has now come to fruition in a number of European countries.Daily cases in the UK have risen steadily since August, reaching an all-time peak of more than 17,000 daily cases on Thursday (aside from a technical glitch that led to 23,000 cases being reported on October 4). <keyword id="6354785" type="LOCATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="france">France</keyword> has seen a similar pattern: On Wednesday, the nation reported 19,000 new cases in just 24 hours — its highest daily count so far.In Belgium and Poland, new daily cases have surpassed peak levels recorded during the first wave of infections. Cases are also surging in Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Sweden. Public-health experts have a few ideas as to why.<h2>There is more testing, but there is also more socializing</h2>To start, European countries are getting better at testing and surveillance. By early September, the UK was conducting <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-22/europe-finds-mass-testing-is-no-panacea-for-the-coronavirus">nearly 45 times more tests</a> compared to early April and France was conducting nearly eight times as many tests, according to data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Testing capacity was also nearly three times higher in Germany and Italy by early September.Another reason that infections have risen is that European countries are lifting lockdown restrictions, thereby increasing social interactions — particularly among younger groups. At a press briefing on Monday, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization's COVID-19 technical lead, said "quite a few" recent outbreaks have been linked to entertainment venues, religious settings, and sporting events.This desire to socialize coincides with a rise in "pandemic fatigue" across Europe.A <a href="https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/335820/WHO-EURO-2020-1160-40906-55390-eng.pdf">recent WHO report</a> found that a growing share of European residents aren't sufficiently following lockdown restrictions or are decreasing their efforts to keep informed about the pandemic. People may also perceive activities as lower risk compared to the start of the pandemic, even though transmission is higher.As countries relax lockdown restrictions, residents may get the false impression that certain activities are now safe as opposed to economically necessary. The UK's <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-53631611">Eat Out to Help Out scheme</a>, for instance, encouraged residents to visit restaurants, cafés, and pubs in August by offering 50% discounts. But it may have undermined the message that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cdc-coronavirus-can-travel-6-feet-through-the-air-indoors-2020-10">eating indoors is relatively risky</a>, given the opportunity for airborne transmission.Over time, residents may become desensitized to health warnings altogether."Even the most outrageous circumstances become normal when experienced over longer periods of time," according to the WHO report. "People may become used to the pandemic and the threat it poses, and complacency may result."<h2>Cases were climbing before schools reopened</h2>Many European countries began to significantly relax lockdown restrictions as early as the spring. Italy and Germany reopened bars and restaurants in May. France implemented the same measure in June and the UK followed suit in July.An analysis from Morgan Stanley's research unit, AlphaWise, found that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/aug/05/uk-office-workers-slower-to-return-to-their-desk-after-covid">half of UK workers surveyed</a> had returned to their normal workplace in August. That figure was even higher in Spain, Italy, and Germany, where three-quarters of surveyed employees had returned to work. In France, more than 80% of surveyed workers had gone back in August.By the time European countries reopened schools in the fall, cases were already beginning to climb.<div type="image" title="French school" height="1333" width="2000" msid="78650773" hostid="261"></div>Germany reopened schools on August 7 — a trade-off for maintaining its bans on large public gatherings such as concerts and sporting events. Within a week, the country had identified around 150 coronavirus cases in schools, but most of those were single infections traced to outside the classroom. French and UK classrooms also welcomed students back in September.Within four days of <keyword id="9009652" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="reopening-schools">reopening schools</keyword>, France saw 22 schools close temporarily due to coronavirus cases. UK schools also began to implement temporary closures around the same time. The number of UK <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/education-54250805">schools that weren't fully open</a> due to coronavirus cases rose from 1% on September 10 to 4% on September 17. That same month, the UK's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/12/ministers-rejected-four-out-five-proposals-from-sage-to-avert-covid-second-wave?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other">proposed a two-week lockdown</a> to help lower transmission. Other scientists have suggested closing bars and restaurants again to allow UK schools to remain open.<h2>'Pandemic fatigue' is setting in as risk perception declines</h2>At the same time that European residents have more opportunities to interact, they've also found it increasingly difficult to abide by lockdown restrictions.Just 11% of UK residents who were exposed to a confirmed COVID-19 case said they had isolated at home for two weeks, according to <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.15.20191957v1">a King's College London survey</a> conducted from March to August that's still awaiting peer review. Only 18% of those surveyed said they hadn't left home after developing COVID-19 symptoms in the last seven days.Many respondents said they couldn't quarantine because they had a dependent child at home — but other Europeans may simply be tired of restricting their movement. Surveys show that, as the pandemic wages on, people have become more stressed about their jobs or incomes, while their perception of risk has declined.Over time, people may start to prioritize personal freedom over their own health.<div type="image" title="pandemic fatigue" height="4024" width="6048" msid="78650779" hostid="261"></div>Others may have trouble determining which activities are low-risk due to conflicting messages from public-health officials. At the start of the pandemic, for instance, UK health officials said there was "mixed" evidence about whether masks prevented transmission. Studies now <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/face-masks-effective-in-protecting-against-coronavirus-2020-6">overwhelmingly suggest</a> that they do."Since the virus arrived in the European region eight months ago, citizens have made huge sacrifices to contain COVID-19," Dr. Hans Henri Kluge, WHO's regional director for Europe, said on October 6. "It has come at an extraordinary cost, which has exhausted all of us, regardless of where we live, or what we do. In such circumstances it is easy and natural to feel apathetic and demotivated, to experience fatigue."One group that may be particularly afflicted with "pandemic fatigue" — teenagers and young adults — is also a key driver of coronavirus transmission.While young people are less vulnerable to severe outcomes, rising cases among younger groups already seems to be driving up hospitalizations in Europe. UK hospitals now have more coronavirus patients than in March, when the nation's lockdown began, according to data from Pantheon Macroeconomics."What we are beginning to see, worryingly, in places like France, like the UK, Ireland, and other countries is hospitalization rates increasing, ICU occupancy rising," Dr. Mike Ryan, the executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, said. "It's really important that health systems are able to cope with what will be an increase in cases in hospitals and ICUs over the coming weeks."

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COVID-19 situation worsens in Europe — Netherlands, Austria imposes full lockdown

IANS

Italy and Austria share a border, but while one nation grapples with crippling coronavirus deaths, the other is preparing to lift its lockdown

Rhea Mahbubani,Rhea Mahbubani

A mutated COVID-19 strain that spread on Danish mink farms is 'most likely' extinct, authorities say, as Ireland starts its own mink cull

Grace Dean

10 Things in Politics: Supply-chain disarray won't ruin the holidays

Brent D. Griffiths

Trump threatened to cut off funding to the WHO, saying 'they seem to always err on the side of China' even though 'we fund it'

Tom Porter,Tom Porter

Europe's dramatic spike in coronavirus cases is what happens when reopening meets 'pandemic fatigue'

Aria Bendix