10A — THE OBSERVER
Doctor warns France has
‘lost control’ of virus
Airstrike in northwestern Syria
kills more than 50 rebel fi ghters
By Sarah El Deeb
Associated Press
By Angela Charlton and
Mike Corder
Associated Press
PARIS — A French
doctor warned Monday,
Oct. 26, that his country
has “lost control of the epi-
demic,” a day after health
authorities reported more
than 52,000 new coro-
navirus cases as nations
across Europe enact more
sweeping restrictions to try
to slow surging infection
rates.
Spain — the fi rst Euro-
pean country to sur-
pass 1 million confi rmed
COVID-19 cases —
declared a state of emer-
gency Sunday that included
a nationwide overnight
curfew, a cap of six people
on social gatherings and
possible travel bans in
and out of the hardest-hit
regions.
The effect was clear
on Barcelona’s famed Las
Ramblas promenade, which
was deserted Sunday night
when it normally would
have been teeming with
people.
In two major Italian
cities, people took to the
streets amid a pushback
from small sections of
society to new restrictions.
On Friday, demonstra-
tors in Naples protested a
locally imposed 11 p.m. to
5 a.m. curfew and clashed
with police. On Saturday
night, far-right and neo-fas-
cist groups led a similar
protest in Rome against a
curfew. Another protest
is planned for Tuesday in
Milan.
Dr. Jean-François Del-
fraissy, president of the sci-
entifi c council that advises
the French government on
the virus, said the country
is in a “very diffi cult, even
critical situation.”
“There probably are
more than 50,000 new
cases every day. Our esti-
mate at the Scientifi c
Council is closer to 100,000
– twice as many,” Del-
fraissy told RTL radio.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2020
WORLD
Lewis Joly/Associated Press
Commuters wearing face masks walk on the platform of a
Paris subway, Sunday Oct. 25, 2020. France has imposed a
curfew in many regions of France, including Paris and its
suburbs, to curb the spiraling spread of the coronavirus.
“Between those who aren’t
tested and asymptom-
atic patients, we’re close
to that number of cases.
This means the virus is
spreading extremely fast.”
France declared a state
of emergency earlier
this month and has been
imposing more and more
restrictions since Sep-
tember to try to ease the
pressure on France’s hos-
pitals, where COVID-19
patients occupy more than
half of all ICU beds.
Dr. Eric Caumes, head
of the infections and trop-
ical diseases department
at Paris’ Pitie-Salpetriere
Hospital, said the country
needs to lock down again.
“We lost control of the
epidemic but that doesn’t
date from yesterday,” he
said on broadcaster Fran-
ceinfo. “We lost control of
the epidemic several weeks
ago already.”
Europe’s confi rmed
death toll has surpassed
250,000 according to a
count by Johns Hopkins
University, which puts the
global toll at more than 1.1
million.
Italy, the fi rst country in
the West to get slammed by
COVID-19, took new mea-
sures over the weekend to
try to rein in the new out-
break, ordering restaurants
and bars closed by 6 p.m.,
and shutting down gyms,
pools and movie theaters.
The measures, which
took effect Monday, also
require high schools to
transition to at least 75%
distance learning while
letting younger students
remain in classrooms.
Indoor and outdoor gath-
erings, including those
for religious reasons, are
barred, and the government
is strongly recommending
people avoid having house
guests and traveling in the
country except for work,
health or other necessities.
Milan trattoria owner
Giuseppe Di Terlizzi fears
the worst as he is forced to
close in the evenings after
already losing lunchtime
customers because so many
people work from home.
“We have high costs and
almost zero revenue,” he
said Sunday. “So it will be
a disaster, if they don’t help
us it will be the death of
the restaurant business in
Milan.”
Italy has been registering
around 20,000 new con-
fi rmed infections per day
and health authorities have
warned that some hospital
COVID-19 wards risk hit-
ting the saturation point in
the next week or two.
British authorities are
likely to tighten restric-
tions on more areas of the
country this week, amid
mixed signs about whether
measures introduced in
the last few weeks have
stemmed a steep rise in
infections.
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BEIRUT — An air-
strike on a rebel training
camp in northwestern
Syria on Monday, Oct. 27,
killed more than 50 Turk-
ish-backed fi ghters and
wounded nearly as many,
in one of the heaviest
blows to the opposi-
tion’s strongest groups, a
spokesperson and a war
monitor said.
The opposition vowed
to retaliate for the attack
on Faylaq al-Sham,
blaming Russia for the
daytime airstrike. There
was no immediate com-
ment from Russia or
Turkey, which although
they support opposite
sides in Syria’s confl ict,
have worked together to
maintain a cease-fi re in
the rebel enclave.
Youssef Hammoud,
a spokesperson for the
Syrian opposition, said
the airstrike in the north-
western part of Idlib prov-
ince, the last rebel enclave
in Syria, targeted a mil-
itary training camp for
Faylaq al-Sham. Faylaq
al-Sham is the largest Tur-
key-backed armed group
and one of the most disci-
plined and best trained.
Turkey has long sup-
ported Syrian rebel forces
in Syria and has used
many of those fi ghters
to bolster its military
campaigns in Libya and
Azerbaijan.
The camp, at Jebel
al-Dweila not far from
the Turkish border, was
hosting training ses-
sions for new recruits,
according to a war mon-
itor and another oppo-
sition spokesperson.
Leaders of the camp
were among those killed,
according to Hammoud.
Journalists or activ-
ists in the area were not
allowed near the camp
and the extent of the
damage was not immedi-
ately known.
The Britain-based
Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights, which
monitors the war in
Syria, gave a higher
toll, at 78 fi ghters dead
and nearly 90 wounded.
Rescue efforts were still
underway, the Observa-
tory said. It said it also
suspected the airstrike
was carried out by Russia,
which is a close ally of
Syrian President Bashar
Assad in the country’s
civil war.
A hospital near the
explosion was over-
whelmed with the casu-
alties and was forced to
send wounded and dead
to other facilities. A
doctor in Idlib city said
the city’s central hospital,
more than 15 miles from
the camp, received two
bodies and 11 wounded.
All the casualties were
fi ghters, the doctor said,
speaking on condition of
anonymity because he
was not allowed to dis-
cuss the attack on an
armed group. One media
activist, Rashid al-Bakr,
was among those killed,
according to the Macro
Media Center, an online
news platform.
One Facebook group
called on Idlib residents
to check with hospitals
in the city if they are
missing relatives, a clear
indication many remained
unidentifi ed.
Syrian rebel groups
vowed to retaliate.
“We, the factions of
the National Front for
Liberation, will respond
to these violations,” said
Naji al-Mustafa, another
spokesperson for the
Turkish-backed fi ghters,
threatening to target
government and Rus-
sian positions. He called
the strike a “crime” by
Russia.
Turkey and Russia bro-
kered a truce in Idlib ear-
lier this year to halt a gov-
ernment offensive that
displaced hundreds of
thousands in the already
overcrowded enclave.
Around a dozen Turkish
observation points were
deployed inside Idlib to
monitor the truce, which
remained shaky.
In recent days, there
was a resumption of
strikes.
On Friday, airstrikes
also targeted a local
market for rudimentary
fuel burners and diesel
in the opposition-con-
trolled region of Jarablus,
in northern Aleppo. At
least seven people were
killed, according to the
Observatory.
Last week, Turkish
troops evacuated one
of their largest military
bases in the area, which
was surrounded by Syrian
government troops for
months.
Syrian opposition
fi ghters said it was part of
Turkey’s redeployment of
its forces in the shrinking
enclave.
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