By Associated Press |
The worldwide death toll from the coronavirus hit 100,000 as Christians around the globe marked a Good Friday unlike any other – in front of computer screens instead of in church pews – and some countries tiptoed toward reopening segments of their battered economies.
Around the world, public health officials and religious leaders alike warned people against violating the lockdowns and social distancing rules over Easter and allowing the virus to come storming back. Authorities resorted to roadblocks and other means to discourage travel.
Europe lockdown continues
Paramedics take a patient from an ambulance at the Verdun Hospital in Montreal. (AP)
In Italy, officials employed helicopters, drones and stepped-up police checks to make sure residents didn’t slip out of their homes.
On Thursday alone, police stopped some 300,000 people around Italy to check whether they had permission to travel. About 10,000 were issued summonses.
Some churches held services online, while others arranged prayers at drive-in theaters. Fire-scarred Notre Dame Cathedral came back to life briefly in Paris, days before the first anniversary of the April 15 inferno that ravaged it. Services were broadcast from the closed-to-the-public cathedral.
