Tag Archives: lockdown

Second lockdown over past 16 days on UNC campus triggered by person waving gun

UNC Lockdown

Important Takeaways:

  • According to police at 12:54 p.m. on Wednesday, the university issued an emergency notification warning of an armed and dangerous person on or near campus.
  • The campus was placed on lockdown, and police officers swarmed the area. In the chaos, several students ran out of their buildings, seeking safety.
  • The incident sent students and staff scrambling for cover as emergency sirens blared, waiting for more information.
  • “We could have watched that man die and then been next,” Agnoli said. “It’s a lot to take in.”
  • Mickel Deonte Harris, the man sought in connection with the incident, was arrested around 2:45 p.m.

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CDC monitored cell phone location to perform analysis of compliance

Isaiah 1:23 “Your rulers are rebels, And companions of thieves; Everyone loves a bribe, And chases after rewards. They do not defend the orphan, Nor does the widow’s plea come before them.

Important Takeaways:

  • CDC Tracked Millions of Phones to See If Americans Followed COVID Lockdown Orders
  • Newly released documents showed the CDC planned to use phone location data to monitor schools and churches, and wanted to use the data for many non-COVID-19 purposes, too.
  • (CDC) bought access to location data harvested from tens of millions of phones in the United States to perform analysis of compliance  with curfews, track patterns of people visiting K-12 schools, and specifically monitor the effectiveness of policy in the Navajo Nation
  • SafeGraph, the company the CDC paid $420,000 for access to one year of data, includes Peter Thiel and the former head of Saudi intelligence among its investors. Google banned the company from the Play Store in June.
  • Zach Edwards, a cybersecurity researcher: “The CDC seems to have purposefully created an open-ended list of use cases, which included monitoring curfews, neighbor-to-neighbor visits, visits to churches, schools and pharmacies, and also a variety of analysis with this data specifically focused on ‘violence.’”

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Shanghai’s Zero Covid Policy literally have residents starving as cases increase

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:

  • Apocalyptic scenes in Shanghai’s rebellion against Zero Covid chaos: Residents attack police after being evicted to create quarantine centers and try to break barricades in hunt for food… while hazmat-clad Communist thugs still can’t stop cases going up
  • Dozens of buildings in the city have been converted to makeshift isolation hubs as PPE-clad local officials struggle to contain record infection rates, which have surpassed 25,000 in recent days.
  • Restrictions have seen residents confined to their homes and face food and water shortages, with other clips show locals bursting through barricades demanding food.
  • Strict lockdown rules have been in place city-wide since April 3 in a bid to control the super-transmissible but milder Omicron strain. But cases in China are still on the rise.
  • Pressure on the city to bring its outbreak under control is mounting from above, with President Xi Jinping warning on Wednesday that strict virus measures ‘cannot be relaxed’ and proclaiming that ‘persistence is victory,’ in a speech published by state media.

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Freedom Convoy spreads across Europe from Vienna, Paris and now Brussels

Proverbs 22:8 “Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of his fury will fail.”

Important Takeaways:

  • ‘They Can’t Stop Us’: Freedom Convoy Rolls into EU’s Capital Despite Government Ban
  • A Freedom Convoy of anti-mandate motorists is arriving in Brussels, the de facto capital of the European Union, despite authorities banning the demonstration.
  • Some 1,300 vehicles are on the move into capital of the European Union Brussels
  • Authorities in charge of other European cities, such as Paris and Vienna, have made similar attempts to ban demos styled on anti-mandatory vaccine protests in Canada, though all so far have been futile.
  • While authorities in Belgium have issued a ban on the forthcoming anti-lockdown protest in the nation’s capital, the nation has also seemingly acquiesced to calls for the country to loosen its lockdown restrictions.
  • From February 18, rules regarding the closure of establishments after a certain time, as well as the mandatory wearing of masks are set to be loosened.
  • “Today, we are taking a huge step forward. We are returning to normalcy,” Politico reports Alexander De Croo, Belgium’s Prime Minister

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During Covid Freedom is Suppressed

Rev 6:7, 8 NCV When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!”8 I looked, and there before me was a pale horse. Its rider was named death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill people by war, by starvation, by disease, and by the wild animals of the earth.

Important Takeaways:

  • How These Western Countries Suppressed Freedom During COVID-19 Pandemic
  • Dennis Prager “Looking at the government overreach and abuses of power in virtually every other Western nation, one can only conclude that America truly is the last free man standing.”
  • Canada – Canada is one of the only countries in the world that bans the unvaccinated from all public transportation—airplanes, trains, and buses. And no Canadian home can entertain more than three non-household visitors—a ban that prevented families and friends from getting together for Christmas.
  • Europe – most European countries introduced the so-called health pass or “European COVID-19 Pass.”
  • Netherlands – anti-lockdown protest was banned by the mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, because people would “not be adhering to social distancing rules.” Thousands of people nevertheless showed up. They were met with drones, water cannons, and huge numbers of police. Footage capturing a police dog biting down on a peaceful protester’s arm has gone viral.
  • France – Starting next week, working from home will become compulsory for those who can. So, too, wearing a mask is compulsory throughout the country for everyone aged 11 and over in enclosed spaces and on public transport, on pain of a fine.
  • Australia – Australia placed most of its citizens under house arrest for much of 2021. Melbourne, the country’s second-largest city, described by the Voice of America on Oct. 21 as “officially the world’s most locked down city,” was locked down 260 days.  Residents were prohibited from traveling more than 5 kilometers from their homes. Schools were, and remain, closed, and international travel was, and remains, prohibited. Needless to say, all shops, bars, and restaurants were closed.

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Spain’s La Palma lifts lockdown imposed after volcano soured air quality

By Marco Trujillo

LA PALMA, Spain (Reuters) – Authorities in Spain’s La Palma lifted a stay-at-home order on Monday just a few hours after telling people to stay indoors due to poor air quality caused by the eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano.

The eruption, which has sent spectacular rivers of molten lava running down the slopes of Cumbre Vieja for nearly three months, is the longest running on the Spanish Canary island since records began in 1500.

Around 24,500 residents in Los Llanos de Aridane, El Paso and Tazacorte – a third of La Palma’s inhabitants – were asked to stay indoors due to emissions of sulphur dioxide that had reached “extremely adverse” levels, authorities said.

In affected municipalities, residents were told to stay inside, while students were told to remain in schools and parents not to pick them up until the air quality cleared.

However, a few hours later, emergency services lifted the order thanks to an improvement in air quality data and said students would leave school at the regular time.

“We’re all a bit scared,” said 64-year old Carlos Ramos in Los Llanos de Aridane, explaining that nothing similar had happened with previous eruptions on the island.

“We’ll see how it all ends because I don’t trust it (the volcano) and I’m not totally sure it’s ever going to end.”

Lava flows have damaged or destroyed at least 2,910 buildings, according to the EU satellite monitoring system Copernicus, forcing the evacuation of thousands of people from their homes on the island, part of the subtropical Canaries archipelago.

(Reporting by Marco Trujillo and Borja Suárez; writing by Emma Pinedo; editing by Nathan Allen, Mark Heinrich and Raissa Kasolowsky)

Austria allows broad lifting of lockdown, but many provinces hold off

VIENNA (Reuters) – Austria will let a wide range of businesses, from non-essential shops to theatres, restaurants and hairdressers reopen when its COVID-19 lockdown ends on Sunday, the government said on Wednesday, but many regions will open up more cautiously.

The move means switching from a single set of rules for the whole country to a patchwork varying between nine provinces. Adding to the confusion, those opening up the fastest included the western provinces of Vorarlberg and Tyrol, which have the highest and fourth-highest infection rates in the country.

“Some (provinces) will act gradually over time, and Burgenlend, Vorarlberg and Tyrol will (immediately) adopt this federal arrangement,” Tyrol’s governor, Guenther Platter, told a joint news conference with Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Health Minister Wolfgang Mueckstein.

Vorarlberg and Tyrol are Alpine provinces that rely heavily on winter tourism. Hotels across Austria have been closed to tourists during lockdown, though ski lifts are open.

Austria went into lockdown two weeks ago to counter a surge in daily coronavirus infections to record levels. Infections have plunged but intensive-care bed occupancy is still rising. The government pledged when the lockdown was introduced that it would last no longer than 20 days, until this Sunday.

The list of businesses that can reopen from Sunday applies provided the local province is not keeping tighter restrictions. The province of Upper Austria, which long had Austria’s highest infection rate and borders both Germany and the Czech Republic, plans to stay in lockdown until Dec. 17.

Vienna will only let cafes and restaurants fully reopen a week after the national lockdown lifts, while non-essential shops and Christmas markets will reopen from Monday. Austrian media said three other provinces would take a similar approach, only letting hotels and restaurants reopen on Friday, Dec. 17.

(Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Catherine Evans and Alex Richardson)

Man with gun outside U.N. in New York surrenders to police

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A man who held an apparent shotgun to his neck near the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan on Thursday is in police custody and poses no threat, the New York City police department said.

Live news video showed the man surrendering to police outside the fence around the UN compound on Manhattan’s East Side.

“The individual is now in custody and there is NO THREAT to the public,” the New York Police Department tweeted.

The U.N. complex was temporarily put on lockdown on Thursday as police responded to the incident. Before turning himself in, the man paced back and forth by the fence and left several notebooks on the sidewalk, which were taken by police in heavy armor.

As traffic was diverted from the area, police tried to establish a dialogue with the man, who appeared to be his 60s, an NYPD spokesman said.

“We have absolutely zero indication that this person is a staff member or former staff member or in any way linked to the U.N.,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters.

Dujarric said an initial full lockdown was partially eased by early afternoon with the reopening of a separate entrance.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols in New York; Writing by Katharine Jackson; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Matthew Lewis)

Slovakia follows Austria into lockdown amid record surge in COVID cases

By Robert Muller and Jason Hovet

PRAGUE (Reuters) – Slovakia’s government followed the example of neighboring Austria on Wednesday and ordered a two-week lockdown to quell the world’s fastest rise in COVID-19 cases as the number of people sick in hospital reached a critical level and vaccination levels remain low.

Restaurants and non-essential shops will close as part of the measures and movement will be limited to trips for essential shopping, work, school or medical visits, along with walks in nature, government officials said.

Slovakia on Tuesday registered more than 10,000 new daily infections for the first time since the pandemic started, while hospitalizations hit what the Health Ministry called a “critical point” that meant limiting other care and possibly asking for foreign assistance.

“The situation is serious,” Prime Minister Eduard Heger said. “We got here because the (existing) measures were not observed.”

Adjusted for population size, Slovakia is experiencing the world’s fastest rise in infections, according to Our World in Data, topping a list currently led by other European countries.

The neighboring Czech Republic and Hungary both registered a record daily rise in cases on Tuesday, while Austria also implemented a total lockdown this week, shutting non-essential shops, bars and cafes for at least 10 days.

Slovakia’s decision to return to a lockdown comes after the government already slapped new restrictions on unvaccinated people this week in a bid to push up inoculations. Before that, the country had been gradually tightening restrictions in regions hard-hit as cases have jumped over the past month.

Heger said measures would be assessed after 10 days and any loosening would only be for the vaccinated.

Less than 50% of people in the country of 5.5 million are fully vaccinated, the third-lowest rate in the European Union. The unvaccinated count for the majority of cases and hospitalizations.

President Zuzana Caputova made an emotional plea on Tuesday, saying the country was losing its fight with COVID-19 and needed a lockdown as healthcare staff became overworked.

The number of hospitalized patients has reached 3,200, approaching peaks of around 3,800 seen in the last wave of the pandemic.

Dagmar Sudekova, deputy director of the Zilina hospital in one of the harder hit regions, told the state broadcaster RTVS on Tuesday evening more than 80% of patients were unvaccinated and the hospital’s ventilation and high-flow oxygen beds were full.

“We just manage with the help of neighboring hospitals,” she said.

(Reporting by Robert Muller and Jason Hovet; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Hugh Lawson)

Czechs, Slovaks target unvaccinated people in step behind Austria

By Jiri Skacel

PRAGUE (Reuters) -The Czech Republic and Slovakia banned unvaccinated people from hotels, pubs, hairdressers and most public events from Monday after COVID-19 cases filled hospitals’ intensive care wards, with most of the seriously ill patients not inoculated.

The central European neighbors both adopted the new measures last week, a step behind Austria which first set restrictions on unvaccinated people but went for a full lockdown on Monday as the region experienced the world’s latest hotspot.

The countries took the decision as daily infections reach new records and inoculation rates lag most European Union peers.

Slovakia has the bloc’s third-lowest rate at 46.8%, according to European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), while 60% of the Czech population has at least one dose of the vaccine.

Debate over a possible return to lockdown measures for both vaccinated and unvaccinated is growing, with Slovak news website Dennik N reporting the government could debate a proposal at a Wednesday meeting, following Austria.

Slovakia’s ruling coalition could be split however, and in the Czech Republic, ruling politicians have spoken out against a lockdown even as the Czech Medical Chamber called for one.

Many businesses fear a return to harsher restrictions like a year ago when most shops and restaurants had to close doors in the run-up to Christmas holidays.

“I believe that we are going into another lockdown… so this Christmas will be very similar to the last one,” Jakub Olbert said at one of the seasonal markets in Prague he organizes and supplies.

He said the number of vendors at other Christmas markets had already been halved by distancing requirements, hitting business.

The Czech government was due on Monday to discuss calling a state of emergency, allowing it to order medical students to help at strained hospitals where soldiers have already been dispatched in some places. The state of emergency framework could also be used for any possible lockdown later.

Under new measures, only people who have been vaccinated or who have recovered from COVID-19 in the past six months can visit restaurants, hotels, services or public events like sports games.

In large parts of Slovakia, the government ordered restaurants to close to all inhouse meals and serve-take out meals only, as well as restricting access to services for the unvaccinated.

Analysts have so far said the economic hit from the new Czech restrictions could be limited.

Vaclav Starek, president of the country’s Association of Hotels and Restaurants, said the main thing was keeping businesses running even if they need to face limitations.

The COVID-19 surge in the Czech Republic comes amid a transfer of power after an October election although both the outgoing and incoming administrations have spoken against lockdowns, especially of schools.

A demonstration against any form of lockdown was planned outside Prague Castle on Monday.

(Reporting by Jiri Skacel, Jason Hovet and Jan Lopatka; editing by Philippa Fletcher)