The Danish Cup final was interrupted for almost a quarter of an hour because fans refused to comply with the physical distancing rules inside the stadium, police said.
The two finalists, Aalborg (AaB) and SonderjyskE, were each allocated 750 tickets for the match in Esbjerg on Wednesday evening.
During the first half, "the referee had to suspend the match for up to 15 minutes, when the AaB fans refused to stay in the designated seats and huddled together in violation of the Covid rules," Sydjylland police said on Twitter.
Pictures show members of the Aalborg staff unsuccessfully encouraging their supporters to return to their designated seats.
Between 40 and 50 of the fans were expelled from the ground and put on a bus and sent back to Aalborg with a police escort.
The match resumed after 14 minutes and ended in a 2-0 victory for SonderjyskE, who won the competition for the first time.
The police also tweeted that they arrested some fans for letting off flares.
The increased crowd for the match represented a loosening of Denmark's earlier coronavirus rules limiting attendance at a football match to 500 with a minimum distance between them of two metres.
On Tuesday, the Danish government said it would allow 500 fans into each section of the stadium and that would have to keep one metre apart.
In Copenhagen, up to 10,500 fans will be able into Parken, Denmark's largest stadium which can hold 38,000, FC Copenhagen club communications manager Jes Mortensen told AFP on Tuesday.
Agence France-Presse
Students of Sam Khok school wearing face masks and face shields are seen inside old ballot boxes repurposed into partitions as they attend a class in Pathum Thani province, Thailand on Wednesday. The Thai government eased isolation measures and introduced physical distancing to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), as schools nationwide reopened.
-reuters-
They are itching for a good time after months of lockdown, coronavirus be damned: young adults in Florida are fueling a dangerous rise in COVID-19 infections.
Seemingly feeling immortal, these fun-crazed people began gathering in bars, nightclubs and elsewhere after the Sunshine State reopened its economy this month -- though the state has now had to put a hold on alcohol-fueled nightlife.
Check out Instagram, and there's always a party on a beach somewhere, or at a swimming pool, or on a rented yacht in south Florida, where nightlife spots other than restaurants are still closed.
Plus, buses are hired for bachelorette parties teeming with folks drinking beer, dancing to reggaeton music -- and spreading the coronavirus.
Infection rates were stable as Florida joined the rest of America in lockdown from March through May. But they shot up in June after the state moved to reopen and tourists from all over the country started pouring in.
On Ocean Drive, which is a kind of party central in Miami Beach, visitors from Missouri, Texas, Georgia and elsewhere stroll by the sea.
Round about midnight Mike Olivera, a 25-year-old visiting from New York, sits on a wall on the oceanfront promenade and sneaks sips of vodka with a buddy, watching a steady flow of fresh-faced young humanity saunter by.
And listen to how concerned Olivera is about mask-wearing and social distancing: "I wanted to get laid," he said, explaining why he came to Miami.
Olivera chuckles, then clarifies. He is from New York, the former COVID epicenter of America, with its tight social distancing restrictions.
"So I wanted a break and actually to be able to do things, meet nice people and hang out," said Olivera.
With that kind of attitude common, Florida has set records for new cases almost every day for the past two weeks -- more than 5,000 on Wednesday and Thursday as infection rates rise ominously here and elsewhere in the South and West of the country.
On Monday, Florida surpassed 100,000 known coronavirus cases, and the average age of the people infected is now 33 -- down from 65 two months ago.
Governor Ron DeSantis said this week the state is seeing a "real explosion" of virus cases among young people, and he warned that places serving booze without enforcing social distancing rules could be stripped of their liquor licenses.
On Friday, the state abruptly halted on-site alcohol consumption in bars because of the surging infection rate.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert, said young people nationwide, many of them asymptomatic and spreading the virus unknowingly, are now driving a "paradigm shift" in the dynamics of the pandemic. In stern terms, he warned them to think about the health of others.
"If you get infected you will infect someone else," he told a news briefing after a meeting of the national coronavirus task force, the first in two months. "And then ultimately you'll infect someone who's vulnerable.
"The only way we're going to end it is by ending it together."
In Florida, servers braving crushing heat sweat through their face masks and wear plastic gloves as they wait on customers.
Some restaurants have been shut down or closed voluntarily to try to contain the spread of the virus in a state heavily dependent on tourism revenue.
- Life is not normal -
Olivera shrugs off the threat of the virus.
"No, I don't feel like it's going to affect me. I'm 25 years old, I don't feel like I have anything to worry about," he said.
"I faced uglier things. I come from the Bronx, you know what I mean. If I survived that I can survive Miami," he said, then downed a shot of vodka.
But Annalisa Torres, a data analyst newly graduated from the University of Florida, said it irks her to see people her age behave this way.
"It’s important to recognize that as young adults, the actions we take throughout this pandemic don’t only affect us, but the people around us," she said from self-quarantine in her home in Miami.
"In my case, I live with my parents and younger brother. I stay home not for me, but for them," said Torres.
The problem is that when young people are told they are less vulnerable to the coronavirus they feel impervious to it, said Mary Jo Trepka, an epidemiologist at Florida International University.
"The message has been that it's primarily severe for older people, and that young people are less likely to get sick," she told AFP.
"That's very true, but once you start getting so many young people that are sick, there will be some that are going to get very sick and will end up being hospitalized," Trepka added.
And many families in south Florida are multi-generational, so younger people are often in contact with elderly relatives at home, she added.
Agence France-Presse
SEOUL - South Korea returned largely to normal Wednesday as workers went back to offices, and museums and libraries reopened under eased social distancing rules after new coronavirus cases dropped to a trickle.
The South endured one of the worst early outbreaks of the disease outside China and while it never imposed a compulsory lockdown, strict social distancing had been widely observed since March.
Employees were urged to work from home where possible while the new school term was postponed from its March start.
Scores of events -- from K-pop concerts to sports seasons -- were delayed or cancelled, while museums and galleries were closed and religious services suspended.
But the South appears to have brought its outbreak under control thanks to an extensive "trace, test and treat" program that has drawn widespread praise.
In a population of 51 million, its death toll is little more than 250, and new cases have slowed to just a handful -- 13 in the past three days, all of them arriving international passengers. More than 90 of the South's imported cases are returning citizens.
At least 100 people visited the National Museum of Korea in Seoul on Wednesday morning, and the first visitors of the day -- a married couple -- were given a bouquet of flowers by staff.
"Many of our colleagues also came back to work today, so we are very excited about the reopening, we are very happy," museum spokeswoman Lee Hyun-ju told AFP.
Some workers were bittersweet about going back to the office.
"I wanted to go home as soon as I sat down at my desk in the office today. But there is also this weird sense of stability," wrote one Twitter poster.
Another tweeted: "I feel like my holidays are now over."
The South reported two new infections on Wednesday, taking the total to 10,806, the Korea Centers for Disease Control said.
Some professional sports, including baseball and soccer, are starting their new seasons this week after being postponed over virus fears, although the matches will be played behind closed doors.
Schools are to reopen in stages starting from May 13.
Under what Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun referred to as "everyday life quarantine", South Koreans are still encouraged to wear face masks and wash their hands frequently, among other recommendations.
Agence France-Presse
People eat in between plastic partitions, set up in an effort to contain any spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, at the Penguin Eat Shabu hotpot restaurant in Bangkok on Tuesday. Thailand started the partial relaxation of its lockdown on May 3 including the reopening of restaurants following guidelines on physical distancing.
Lillian Suwanrumpha, AFP
SACRAMENTO, California - California will step up enforcement of coronavirus-related public health restrictions after crowds jammed beaches over the weekend, Governor Gavin Newsom said on Monday.
Newsom's announcement came after local officials in Orange and Ventura Counties allowed access to their beaches even as state parks remained closed, prompting families and groups to head to the ocean on a warm spring weekend.
The crowds put at risk the state's progress in slowing the advance of the novel coronavirus and possibly could delay a possible loosening of restrictions that was just weeks away, said Newsom, a Democrat.
The beach crowds exemplify the tension that officials throughout the United States are dealing with as residents chafe under stay-at-home orders and some states begin to loosen them.
Newsom said he would not direct state police or park rangers to issue citations to individuals who were just out quietly with their children or walking their dogs.
"I don’t want to be punitive," he said. "They just want to take a rest on the beach and all of a sudden they get a citation - I don’t want to see that. But if there are people thumbing their nose and taking a risk… I think we may have to do a little bit more."
The two counties that opened their beaches are reconsidering their plans after people thronged their shoreline spots, prompting criticism from public health authorities, Newsom said.
Two additional states, Nevada and Colorado, have joined with California, Oregon and Washington to develop a Western regional plan for re-opening the troubled economy and allowing residents to begin at least some more typical social interactions.
But Newsom warned that fatalities and new cases were still ongoing in California, where 45 people died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours and 1,300 additional cases were diagnosed.
"The virus is as transmissible as it’s ever been," Newsom said. "It doesn’t take the weekend off. It doesn’t take any time off. It is ubiquitous, it is invisible and it remains deadly." (Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Sandra Maler and Dan Grebler)
-reuters-
SYDNEY, Australia - Swimmers and surfers will return to Sydney's famed Bondi Beach next week, almost 6 weeks after it was closed due to a spike in coronavirus cases, officials announced Wednesday.
But the white sands will remain off-limits to sunbathers, joggers and families in an effort to maintain Australia's strict social distancing requirements.
Paula Masselos, mayor of Waverley, which takes in Bondi and surrounds, said locals could return to the ocean starting 28 April via two access points only.
"What these corridors will do is provide a safe access into the water for swim-and-go and surf-and-go only. So that is for exercise in the water," she told reporters in Sydney.
"The sand is closed: which means no running, no walking, no gathering, no bringing your kids down to play in the sand and have a paddle in the water."
Bondi and nearby beaches were closed in late March after photos circulated online showing mostly young beach-goers packed together on the sands in defiance of a ban on large outdoor gatherings.
The area was also designated a COVID-19 "hotspot" after more than 180 cases were detected among backpackers and residents, prompting health authorities to establish a pop-up testing clinic.
Masselos urged non-residents not to visit Bondi, saying the beach corridors would close if demand was too high.
"We want to make sure it operates within the social distancing and public health order rules," she said.
"And if people are not going to respect that and if the numbers are too great, regrettably we will have to close those."
Other Sydney beaches, including Coogee and Maroubra, reopened Monday to the sound of loudspeaker announcements warning swimmers to abide by social distancing rules.
Australia has recorded more than 6,600 cases of COVID-19, and 74 deaths from the virus.
Agence France-Presse
BERLIN - Germans risk being fined up to 500 euros (P27,000) for standing too close to each other starting Friday as officials crack down on people flouting rules brought in to control coronavirus.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's government has ordered people not leave their homes unless they have an exceptional reason such as grocery shopping, exercise or medical appointments.
Gatherings of more than 2 people are banned and a distance of at least 1.5 meters (5 feet) must be kept from others at all times.
Local governments have the power to set fines for transgressors, with city officials in Berlin saying their fines would be as high as 500 euros.
Similar announcements have come from across Germany's 16 states.
Hesse, home to finance hub Frankfurt, and North Rhine-Westphalia both promised penalties of up to 200 euros for people who gather in groups of more than 2.
Bavaria, Germany's largest state, has been the worst affected by the coronavirus so far, with more than 18,000 cases.
There, people who stand less than 1.5 meters apart risk being fined 150 euros.
Queues of people standing far apart have become a common sight outside German supermarkets and pharmacies, with many sticking down tape to mark where people should stand on the pavement.
However, German police have also reported numerous violations of the rules.
Germany has recorded over 79,000 cases of the novel coronavirus, according to the Robert Koch Institute for disease control.
A total of 1,017 people have died.
Agence France-Presse
HONG KONG- Hong Kong has ordered pubs and bars to close for 2 weeks from 6 p.m. on Friday as the financial hub steps up social distancing restrictions and joins cities around the world in the battle to halt the spread of coronavirus.
Anyone who violates the new law faces 6 months in jail and a fine of HK$50,000 ($6,450).
The extraordinary move in a city that never sleeps comes a week after the government stopped all tourist arrivals and transit passengers at its airport and said it was considering suspending the sale of alcohol in some venues.
"Any premises (commonly known as bar or pub) that are exclusively or mainly used for the sale or supply of intoxicating liquors ... must be closed," the government said in a statement late on Thursday.
It added that 62 confirmed coronavirus cases in the city had been linked to bars, leading to 14 further infections, including a 40-day-old baby. Hong Kong has 802 cases of coronavirus and four deaths from the disease.
Alcohol will still be available in supermarkets and convenience stores across the Asian financial center.
Global coronavirus cases surpassed 1 million on Thursday with more than 52,000 deaths as the pandemic further exploded in the United States and the death toll climbed in Spain and Italy, according to a Reuters tally of official data.
-Reuters-
