Resurgent virus shuts more borders and sparks protests over curfews

WASHINGTON－Border restrictions were being tightened around the world on Monday in the face of an unrelenting coronavirus threat, after a weekend in which anger at social distancing rules bubbled over into fiery clashes in the Netherlands.

The United States was set to join France, Israel and Sweden in pulling up the drawbridge to certain arrivals, with special concern about new strains of the virus that originated in Britain and South Africa.

"When I arrive in a country, the idea is not to contaminate it," Antoine, an 18-year-old Belgian, said at Paris' main international airport after new rules on tests for arrivals from the European Union came into force.

Spaniard Claudio Barraza said: "It's up to us to show that we are civic-minded."

In Washington, President Joe Biden was expected on Monday to reimpose a ban on most non-US citizens who have been in the United Kingdom, Brazil, Ireland and much of Europe, as well as adding South Africa to the list, a senior White House official said.

The US has surpassed 25 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began. The new milestone, reported on Sunday by Johns Hopkins University, is a grim reminder of the coronavirus' wide reach in the US, which has seen far more confirmed cases and deaths than any other country in the world.

One of every five deaths

The US accounts for roughly one of every four cases reported worldwide and one of every five deaths. The number of new cases in the US has shown signs of slowing recently, with an average of 176,000 reported daily in the past week, down from 244,000 in early January.

Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Sunday he had tested positive for COVID-19 amid the country's deadliest week yet in the coronavirus pandemic, which has pushed the health system of the Mexican capital to its limits.

Israel on Sunday announced a weeklong ban on most incoming and outgoing flights in a bid to slow the spread of new variants of the novel coronavirus.

The measure was to begin at midnight from Monday and remain in effect until Sunday, a statement from the prime minister's office said.

But government action to curtail the virus' spread still faces stiff opposition from some Dutch citizens.

Protests against a coronavirus curfew in the Netherlands degenerated into clashes with police and looting in cities across the country on Sunday, a day after a COVID-19 testing center was set on fire in the northern village of Urk.

Police used water cannon and dogs in Amsterdam, public television network NOS reported, after hundreds gathered to protest the 9 pm-4:30 am curfew, set to last until Feb 10.

New Zealand on Monday reported its first community case for more than two months.

Xinhua - Agencies