This week a surfer in northern Spain made international headlines after authorities had to pull the woman – who is infected with coronavirus – from the ocean and charged her with public health violations.
According to a report by Euro Weekly, Monday, officers went to a beach in San Sebastian after they were tipped off by the woman’s own colleagues that she was brazenly disregarding self-isolation rules despite her diagnosis.
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The video of the unidentified woman resisting police commands to come out of the water for an hour went viral and shows her at one point swimming to shore and attempting to flee officers.
Eventually, she was detained by two officers wearing protective suits and hauled away in handcuffs. She was charged not just with crimes against public health but also for disobeying the authorities.
Since March, Spain has imposed one of the strictest lockdowns in the world when the virus began to ravage the country in March. As a result, it was able to come out of a state of emergency in June, but in the time since then has joined other European nations who have seen a rapid uptick in the number of new daily infections.
Currently, there are approximately 10,000 people testing positive for the contagion each day. But due to the strict guidelines, the pandemic has killed almost 30,000 people in Spain, which is just a fraction of the hundreds of thousands who have passed in the United States.
As children in America begin going back to school, theGrio reported that Demetria “Demi” Bannister, a beloved teacher at Windsor Elementary School in Columbia, S.C., died due to complications caused by the virus.
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“Known as Windsor’s Songbird, Ms. Bannister used her musical talents to bring a great deal of joy to our school,” said Denise Quickel, principal of Windsor Elementary, in the announcement. “Ms. Bannister loved her students and never missed an opportunity to advocate for students and public education.”
She worked remotely but her death underscores the concerns many parents in this country have about navigating their children’s educations during this time, particularly those who can’t afford to do virtual learning.
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