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Day: 14 April 2020

Watch the Nutcracker Company

by: Cassandra Tanti
14/04/2020

The Monte-Carlo Ballet’s Casse-Noisette Compagnie, choreographed by Jean-Christophe Maillot, will be broadcast this week to help keep everyone entertained during confinement.
Now is the time to soak in as much culture as possible as a variety of institutions in Monaco offer virtual culture trips, including performances by the Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra and short videos of Monaco released by the Audiovisual Institute.
The Monte-Carlo Ballet is also generously keeping people entertained and satisfying their thirst for culture with a series of broadcasts of their shows. On both Wednesday 15th and Friday 18th April at 5pm, the Nutcracker Company will be broadcast on Monaco Info and France 3 PACA.
It follows the showing of Monte-Carlo Ballet’s La Belle last week.
This week’s performance will last for one hour and 40 minutes and involves the participation of students from the Princess Grace Academy, Bolshoï Theater stars Olga Smirnova and Artem Ovcharenko, and the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Nicolas Brochot.
Stay tuned because the ballet will be sharing many more shows from their repertoire in the weeks to come.
 
Photo: Ballet de Monte-Carlo
 

Police numbers strengthened during holiday

by: Cassandra Tanti
14/04/2020

Monaco’s police officers will be out in force this Easter holiday period ensuring residents are maintaining strict confinement measures.
These next two weeks technically mark Easter school holidays, a time for families to embrace the outdoors and the beautiful spring sunshine.
Unfortunately, due to the coronavirus crisis, lockdown measures are in place in Monaco until at least 3rd May.
To ensure people don’t flout the rules, the government has issued a warning to residents, saying police numbers in Monaco will be boosted over the holiday period, adding that “containment measures must be observed more than ever.”

© Direction de la Communication / Manuel Vitali

On Easter Saturday, four checkpoints were established at the borders of the Principality, with controls on 1,032 vehicles, 351 two-wheelers and 148 pedestrians. Eight reports were issued.
The fire brigade’s drone was also used to make sure people were not gathering in crowds.
© Direction de la Communication / Manuel Vitali

Since 19th March, authorities have stopped and checked 28,518 vehicles in Monaco, 5,547 two-wheelers, 6,413 pedestrians and have drawn up 140 reports.
People face fines of up to €200 for failing to comply with the confinement measures.
 
 

New Covid-19 drug being tested

by: Stephanie Horsman
14/04/2020

A €17 million study of the drug ivermectin is being conducted in Montpellier in the fight against the coronavirus.
Doctors in France are supporting the testing of the anti-malarial drug ivermectin as a more effective alternative to chloroquine, the controversial drug being touted as a miracle cure by provocative French professor Didier Raoult.
Melbourne’s Monash University Biomedicine Discovery Institute has been studying ivermectin in a controlled test tube environment, and the research says that after 48 hours, the drug lowered the viral load of the coronavirus from 5,000 units down to just one. This represents a 99.98% reduction.
Though the results are hugely encouraging, the lead doctor on the study, Dr Kylie Wagstaff, cautioned that the tests have only been carried out in vitro and will need further testing to ascertain the correct doses in human patients.
“Ivermectin is very widely used and seen as a safe drug. We need to figure out now whether the dosage you can use it at in humans will be effective – that’s the next step,” Dr Wagstaff said on the Monash University website. “In times when we’re having a global pandemic and there isn’t an approved treatment, if we had a compound that was already available around the world then that might help people sooner. Realistically it’s going to be a while before a vaccine is broadly available.”
Though it is not entirely clear how the drug works, it is likely, based on its behaviour against other viruses, that it stops the virus from “dampening down the host cells’ ability to clear it.”
Royal Melbourne Hospital’s Dr Leon Caly, a Senior Medical Scientist at the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory (VIDRL) at the Doherty Institute where the experiments with live coronavirus were originally conducted, is the study’s first author.
“As the virologist who was part of the team who were first to isolate and share SARS-COV2 outside of China in January 2020, I am excited about the prospect of ivermectin being used as a potential drug against Covid-19,”  Dr Caly said.
Despite being early days and risks unknown, it has emerged that preliminary human trials are currently taking place in Maryland, USA and London. The group in Maryland disclosed that they were conducting the same trials on animals in early March, but were not ready to publish findings when the Australian report came out.
 
 

Leclerc initiates fundraising race for WHO

by: Stephanie Horsman
14/04/2020

Charles Leclerc has recruited five fellow Formula One drivers to take part in a new Esport series called #RaceForTheWorld, raising funds for WHO and the fight against the Covid-19 virus.
Team Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc can now add philanthropist to his list of talents and achievements. The hotshot driver has organised the event, along with fellow drivers Lando Norris, Alexander Albon, George Russell, Antonio Giovinazzi and Nicholas Latifi, to be part of a three-round virtual championship race scheduled for this weekend.
Two of the double-header events were already raced on 11th and 14th April, with the third and final one being held on Friday 17th April. All donations will be earmarked for the World health Organisation’s Covid-19 Solidarity Relief Fund.


The goal is to raise €100,000. So far, the pilots have amassed over €35,000 with the hopes of meeting their target by week’s end.
“The initiative is a response to the current global pandemic lockdown and gives the drivers another opportunity to race online, to entertain fans across the world, and to raise some money for the WHO fund that has been established to help fight coronavirus across the world,” the event promoters said.
The drivers say that none of their ‘Race for the World’ events will clash with the wildly popular official F1 Virtual Grand Prix series.
The 22-year-old Monegasque made a splash on the simulator racing scene recently as he won the F1 Esports Virtual Grand Prix series event on Melbourne’s Albert Park circuit.
For additional information or to donate to the event, visit the website at:
https://tiltify.com/+race-for-the-world/racefortheworld
 

Commerce figures down in early 2020

by: Stephanie Horsman
14/04/2020

The latest figures from IMSEE show that business was slightly down in both the retail and automotive repair sectors in February ahead of the coronavirus lockdown.

With roughly 800 establishments in the Principality representing €1.5 billion in turnover, retail is an important part of the Monegasque economy. In fact, it was the eighth biggest contributor to the country’s gross domestic product (PIB) in 2017.

This 2017 figure showed a slight decline, -1.9%, from the previous year, but still outperformed the worldwide figures which saw an overall drop of -3.5%. The year 2018, though, saw an encouraging augmentation of 3.7%.

The retail sector of Monaco has 706 brick and mortars, while automotive and motorbike repair has 94. The lion’s share, 366, are located in the Monte-Carlo district, followed by 163 in La Condamine.

Despite the decline in business, the retail and automotive repair businesses have seen modest but steady increases in the number of people they employ. In 2016, these sectors had a combined total of 2,800 staffers. By the end of 2019, the number had inched up to nearly 3,000.

More women were likely to be hired than men in the non-automotive retail companies, with the ration being roughly 60/40 in favour of women. The inverse was seen on the automotive side where over three-quarters of those employed were men. Nearly one in two are under the age of 40. 

In 2018, the retail trade generated €1.5 billion in turnover, an increase of + 3.7% after the noted slight decrease in 2017. Over 10 years, the turnover of the retail trade has increased by an impressive +64%. The share of automotive trade turnover increased from 2014 to 2017 and stabilised in 2018. They represents almost a third of the entire sector.