Extinctions, quarantines and even border crossings on Friday complicated the Christmas holidays for people around the world, although ingenuity, determination and imagination helped turn the day into something special for many.
In Beijing, official churches abruptly canceled Christmas Masses at the last minute, after the Chinese capital went on alert after two cases of COVID-19 were confirmed last week and were identified. two asymptomatic cases on Friday. The Church of St. Joseph in Beijing, built by Jesuit missionaries in the 17th century, was one of those that displayed notifications of cancellation.
The closure of the borders has prevented thousands of migrants fleeing Venezuela’s economic crisis from returning home from Christmas in Colombia. The Colombian government has closed the crossings in an attempt to stop the infections. Those trying to return home for the holidays this year had to turn to smugglers.
Yakelin Tamaure, a nurse who left Venezuela two years ago, would not return home and said there would be no new gifts or clothes for her two children, aged 10 and 15. Tamaure explained that she was unable to find work as a nurse because she did not yet have a residence permit in Colombia. His parents are still in Venezuela.
She was also worried that her mother had broken her leg, and although she was trying to send him money, it was not the same as being with her.
Others managed to cross the border, but were quarantined. On their first Christmas since they got married in March, Nattasuda Anusonadisai and Patrick Kaplin were being held in a hotel room in Bangkok. It wasn’t much fun, but they had made sure to get a Christmas tree.
This month they returned early from a four-and-a-half month trip to Canada and the United States, making a 32-hour trip from Montreal with a stopover in Doha. A condition to enter Thailand is to quarantine 14 days upon arrival. Thai citizens can stay for free in state centers, but foreigners such as Kaplin, who is Canadian, have to pay to stay in a licensed hotel, the option the couple has chosen to stay together.
“The hotel was surprised that we ordered a big Christmas tree, but they didn’t give us too much trouble to bring it,” Anusonadisai said. But they hadn’t ordered enough decorations, so they took out objects they had brought from their travels, such as an eagle feather and, of course, masks.
“Now we will continue this tradition, it’s nice to see so many personal memories on the tree,” Kaplan said.
In populated Seoul, the capital of South Korea, sources of infection have been reported in churches, hospitals, residences, restaurants and prisons. The South Korean Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported 1,241 new cases of coronavirus on Friday, a record for the country.
Song Ju-Hyeon, who lives in Paju near Seoul and is expecting a baby in February, said she now feels safe at home.
“It doesn’t look like Christmas anyway, you don’t hear Christmas carols on the streets,” he said.
“It’s Navimáscara,” said the Kenya Daily Nation, where the second wave of cases has calmed down and the doctors’ short-lived strike ended by Christmas Eve. The holidays were unobtrusive in the East African shopping center as the weather prevented church vigils. The press said that fewer people also traveled to visit their families, which could limit the spread of the virus to rural populations even worse equipped than cities to manage the outbreak.
In Paris, members of the Notre Dame Cathedral choir, wearing helmets and protective suits – not against COVID-19, but for work on the medieval monument devastated by the fire in 2019 – sang in the church for the first time since the fire.
At a special Christmas Eve concert, accompanied by a famous cellist and a rented organ, the singers maintained their social distance to sing under the stained glass windows of the dark church, where the work of removing dangerous debris gives rise to massive reconstruction tasks. . No public entry was allowed, and visits inside the building are not expected until at least 2024.
In Rome, solitary confinement prevented believers from gathering in St. Peter’s Square, where thousands of other people received the pope’s blessing and heard his traditional Christmas message. But he could not see Pope Francis anyway. In response to the reappearance of the virus in Italy, the pontiff canceled his appearance on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, choosing to convey his annual message on global issues in the Apostolic Palace.
Elsewhere, Christmas was a difficult time. Thousands of drivers were stranded in their trucks in the English port of Dover because they had not been tested for the coronavirus France had begun requesting to cross the English Channel. Many seniors faced travel restrictions that prevented them from receiving visits from friends or family on vacation.
In Spain, 81-year-old Álvaro Puig said he felt lonely and often depressed.
“Loneliness saddens me and these holidays, instead of giving me joy, sadden me, I hate them,” said Puig, who spent Christmas Eve alone with his pet rabbit.
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PA journalists from around the world contributed to this report.