March 14, 2020

Soaring Infection Rates, Lockdowns, and Border Closures: The Latest on the Coronavirus in Europe

A staffer walks in one of the emergency structures that were set up at the Brescia hospital, in northern Italy.Luca Bruno/AP

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Saturday brought a flood of news from Europe, where coronavirus cases are soaring and countries are scrambling to mitigate the spread of the infection. 

  • Italy reported 175 deaths and a 20 percent jump in coronavirus cases over 24 hours, bringing the nation’s total infection toll to more than 21,000. Most of the new cases were in the country’s northern region of Lombardy, the epicenter of the European outbreak. The country remains in lockdown. (In a sliver of lighter news, there are lots of moving videos of Italians singing from their balconies to cope with the quarantine.)
  • Spain is following Italy into lockdown: residents will only be able to leave their homes for essential reasons, including going to medical appointments or buying food. The measures, announced by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Saturday, will remain in place for at least 14 days. The announcement comes after an increase of 1,500 new cases in Spain over 24 hours, bringing the country’s total number of infections to 5,700. The country is now Europe’s second-biggest coronavirus hot spot.
  • In France, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced the closure of all restaurants, cafés, theaters, and non-essential stores, effective Saturday. French authorities have already shut down schools. Officials confirmed cases in France have doubled over the last three days to more than 4,500.
  • More borders are shutting as well: Norway and Latvia announced they were closing airports and ports in an effort to curb transmission, following Denmark, Lithuania, Poland, and the Czech Republic. The United States extended the European travel ban to the United Kingdom and Ireland, according to a White House press conference Saturday.
 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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