Protests are continuing in the United States this week against coronavirus lockdown measures. Across the country, groups have been calling for state governments to relax lockdowns and return to business. In some states, protesters blocked roads and demonstrated with placards calling for the economy to be reopened. However, a survey by YouGov and Yahoo News found that the majority of Americans do not support the protests. With over 22 million now unemployed, the pandemic has hit the US economy hard but experts say the stay-at-home measures are vital to slowing the virus which has now killed more than 42,000 people in the US.
The news comes as President Trump announces he will halt all immigration into the United States to protect the jobs of US citizens.
For the first time in history, the price of oil goes negative
The price of oil has crashed below zero for the first time in history this week as a massive surplus in production and plummeting demand causes a shortage of storage space.
The price of West Texas Intermediate fell below -$40 per barrel, meaning oil buyers were actually paying people to take oil away from them. The oil price crisis has been caused by a combination of massive over-supply after a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia with a crash in demand thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.
Duda signs new economic relief package
President Andrzej Duda yesterday signed into law a new package of economic support for business hit by the economic damage of Covid-19.
The package, worth about 11bn Zł, includes support for farmers and small businesses and complements the „crisis-shield”, the massive economic plan revealed last month worth more than 200bn Zł.
Gdansk: Speeding falls during lockdown
Police in Gdansk have released new statistics showing a large drop in the number of people caught speeding since the start of the lockdown. Through March and the first half of April, 479 speeders were caught compared with over 1200 in the same period last year.
However, the number of „extreme speeders”, those caught driving more than 50km/h over the limit, so no real difference with 77 caught in March this year compared to 74 in 2019.
Gdansk portal for coronavirus information in foreign languages
The Gdansk city website has launched a coronavirus information page for foreigners offering important information and updates in 6 foreign languages. The page includes info for speakers of Ukrainian, English, German, Russian, Portuguese, and Arabic, catering for the largest immigrant groups in the city.
The English version of the page can be found by searching for „Coronavirus: information for foreigners in Gdańsk” and links to all languages will be posted on the Radio Gdansk News Twitter page.
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