As virus cases surge, the pandemic is heaping new trouble on an impoverished nation that has never recovered economically or psychologically from a ruinous war in the 1990s.
Mental health professionals fear that the coronavirus will now exacerbate mental health problems. They describe patients who lived through the war having increased anxiety now.
Meanwhile, others are cavalier about the risks because they perceive the invisible virus as much less frightening than the wartime bombardments, relentless sieges, massacres and hunger that still haunt them, Sabina Niksic reports from Sarajevo.
Europe Lockdowns: With exponential cases straining health systems in many European countries, Greece announced a nationwide lockdown in the hopes of stemming a rising tide of patients before its hospitals come under “unbearable” pressure. England's own lockdown has kicked in. The British government and the Bank of England joined forces to provide further support to an economy and population facing a difficult winter. In Italy, four regions will be put under “red-zone” lockdown starting today. Elena Becatoros and Menelaos Hadjicostis have this story from a virus-blighted continent.
- The iconic Paris bookshop Shakespeare and Company has launched an appeal for support as coronavirus-linked losses have left its future in doubt.The shop is famed for publishing James Joyce’s “Ulysees” in 1922 and has long been a veritable institution located on the Left Bank of the River Seine.
US Virus Surge: Voters went to the polls starkly divided on how they see Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. But in places where the virus is most rampant now, Trump enjoyed enormous support. An AP analysis reveals that in 376 counties with the highest number of new cases per capita, the overwhelming majority went for Trump, a rate above other less severely hit areas. Health officials across the nation are facing record numbers of new cases, Carla K. Johnson, Hannah Fingerhut and Pia Deshpande report.
US Jobs: Employers may have slowed their hiring in October for a fourth straight month with confirmed viral cases reaching record levels and the loss of government aid deepening the hardships for many. Economists have forecast that employers added 580,000 jobs last month, down from 661,000 in September and 1.5 million in August. If that estimate proves accurate, it would mean that the U.S. economy has regained only about 12 million of the 22 million jobs that vanished when the pandemic paralyzed the economy in early spring, Christopher Rugaber reports.
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