Cyprus Mail 8 October 2020 - by Reuters News Service
GERMANY
The daily tally of new confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany leapt by almost half, official data showed on Thursday, a day after ministers agreed emergency measures to tamp down on domestic tourism to try to contain the second wave.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases increased by 4,058 to 310,144, a rate not seen since April, lending weight to officials’ warnings that Germany is headed down the path of its neighbours if citizens don’t adhere to rigid social distancing.
“The number of new infections has gone over 4,000,” tweeted senior conservative legislator Norbert Roettgen, a candidate to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel. “It has almost doubled and is once again in the field of exponential growth… Everyone must do what they can to stop it from getting out of control again.”
The reported death toll rose by 16 to 9,578, the tally by the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed.
Germany’s capital Berlin and financial hub Frankfurt have already imposed a curfew on evening entertainment.
Most of Germany’s states agreed on Wednesday that residents of domestic coronavirus risk areas should not be allowed to stay in hotels in other parts of the country to curb surging numbers of new infections.
BELGIUM
Belgium will tighten coronavirus restrictions at the end of the week, limiting groups to a maximum of four people in a bid to stem a sharp rise of COVID-19 infections.
New prime minister Alexander De Croo, who took office five days ago, told a news conference he was aware Belgians were tired of restrictions, but they had to stick to the rules to avoid a fresh lockdown.
Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke said that from Friday Belgians should limit to three the number of people outside their homes for whom they did not observe social distancing.
No more than four people should be invited inside a home, be seated at a single bar table or gather outside. Bars will all have to close at 11 p.m.
Belgians have been able to see up to five people without social distancing and be in groups of up to 10 people at a table in a bar or restaurant.
“People are tired, we know, but we are going to again ask for an effort for our children, so they can keep going to school, for our businesses, so they can keep functioning and so that people don’t lose their jobs,” Vandenbroucke said.
COVID-19 has claimed 10,078 lives in the country of 11 million people, producing one of the highest per capita fatality rates in the world.
The average daily number of new infections over a week passed 2,300 on Tuesday. Hospital admissions are also rising, as are deaths from the virus in the country, the home of European Union institutions and the headquarters of military alliance NATO.
CZECH REPUBLIC
The Czech Republic reported 5,335 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, its highest one-day tally since the pandemic started, Health Ministry data showed on Thursday.
The rise surpassed a previous record of 4,457 reported the previous day as the country of 10.7 million had Europe’s fastest per-capita spike in cases in the past two weeks. In total, it has recorded 95,360 cases since March, along with 829 deaths.
NETHERLANDS
Until recently, the Netherlands was so comfortable with its test-and-trace plan for a second wave of coronavirus infections that it thought there was no need to make people wear face masks.
But in the past month, a surge in new cases has catapulted the per capita infection rate into the top 10 in the world, with a weekly infection rate of around 160 per 100,000 population, as that plan has run into trouble.
On Wednesday, the Dutch parliament was debating an emergency law that would give government the power to make masks mandatory in public places if it chose to, as the daily rate of new infections reached a new record high of nearly 5,000.
After the first wave of infections waned in May, the Netherlands worked to boost testing capacity, promising they would be available to all. The strategy was to find hotspots fast, and isolate people quickly to stop contagion.
Laboratories said they had increased capacity by two-thirds to 51,000 tests per day.
But last month, tests were again limited to people with serious health issues, and Prime Minister Mark Rutte acknowledged capacity was far below demand.
“We don’t have our basic infrastructure in order”, public health professor Jochen Mierau told Reuters.
IRELAND
The spread of COVID-19 in Ireland has reached an exponential growth phase and a coming surge in hospitalisations will create a “very significant challenge” for Irish society, a leading public health official said on Wednesday.
On Monday the Irish government banned indoor restaurant dining across the country and limited the number of visitors to people’s homes to try to curb the accelerating second wave of coronavirus infections – seen as arising from increased socialising after the lifting of lockdown.
But the government rejected a recommendation from public health officials on the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) to impose a much stricter lockdown.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Public Health Emergency Team officials said that the situation had worsened further since their weekend recommendation.
Ireland‘s seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases has more than doubled to 493 cases per day over the past three weeks.
But that figure could increase to between 1,100 and 1,500 cases daily by Nov. 7 if the rate of transmission is not immediately reduced, Nolan said.
Ireland‘s 14-day cumulative case total on Wednesday of 112.8 per 100,000 people was the 15th highest infection rate among 31 European countries monitored by the European Centre for Disease Control.
A total of 39,584 COVID-19 infections and 1,816 deaths related to the respiratory disease have been reported in Ireland.
FRANCE
The French government will put Lyon and Lille on maximum COVID-19 alert, France Inter radio reported on Thursday, paving the way for new restrictions to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus in the two cities.
Health Minister Olivier Veran will announce the decision at a news conference on Thursday, it said on its website.
Officials at the French Health Ministry could not immediately be reached for comment.
Paris and Marseille are already on maximum alert. This has resulted in bars in the capital having to close for two weeks and restaurants have had to set up new sanitary protocols to stay open.
Health authorities on Wednesday reported a record 24-hour rise in new COVID-19 infections, with almost 19,000 additional cases reported, and President Emmanuel Macron said new restrictions would be imposed to contain the pandemic.
France has the ninth-highest COVID-19 death toll in the world, with 32,445 casualties.
GREAT BRITAIN
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government is considering additional local COVID-19 restrictions for parts of northern England as the second wave of the novel coronavirus accelerates, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said on Thursday.
New coronavirus cases are rising by about 14,000 a day in the United Kingdom and millions of people are living under a patchwork of different restrictions, though there is growing alarm about the economic cost of such rules.
“The virus is rising, in terms of the number of cases, quite significantly in the north west, in the north east and in a number of other cities like Nottingham,” Jenrick told Sky.
“We are currently considering what the right action would be to take in those places,” he said. Asked if the actions would be similar to those in Scotland, he said a range of actions were being considered – including a more consistent approach.
ITALY
Italy on Wednesday made it mandatory to wear face masks outdoors nationwide in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus, as new infections jumped to the highest daily tally since April.
The decree was approved at a cabinet meeting after a steady increase in cases over the last two months. It will probably be effective from Thursday, a government source said.
Several Italian regions including Lazio, around the capital Rome, had already made face masks mandatory.
Data from the Health Ministry showed 3,678 cases were reported in the last 24 hours, up from 2,677 on Tuesday and surging past the 3,000 mark for the first time since April 24.
Italy is still recording far fewer daily cases than other large European countries such as France, Spain and Britain.
UKRAINE
Ukraine registered a record 5,397 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the national security council said on Thursday, up from a previous record of 4,753 new cases reported on Wednesday.
The council said a total of 244,734 cases had been registered in Ukraine as of Oct. 8, with 4,690 deaths, including 93 in the past 24 hours.
The daily tally of coronavirus infections spiked in late September and early October above 4,000, prompting the government to extend lockdown measures until the end of October.
Ukraine’s Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said on Monday the daily number of new coronavirus cases in Ukraine could exceed 5,000 later this week.
BULGARIA
Bulgaria reported a daily record of 437 coronavirus cases on Thursday, as the country grapples with a rising number of infections, data from the national information platform on the disease showed.
The Balkan country now has 22,743 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 873 deaths.
The country’s chief health inspector has said new restrictions, such as closing restaurants may be imposed if the confirmed cases continue to rise, but ruled out a full lockdown.
SLOVAKIA
Slovakia’s daily tally of new coronavirus cases rose to 1,037, the highest since the pandemic reached the country, Prime Minister Igor Matovic said on Thursday.
“Let’s all be extra-cautious, please,” Matovic said in a post on his Facebook profile.
His government introduced new curbs to contain the virus and approved a state of emergency from Oct 1.
AUSTRIA
Austria’s daily number of confirmed coronavirus cases has surpassed the record set in March when the initial wave of infections was at its peak, newspaper Kronen Zeitung reported on Thursday.
The number of cases in the past 24 hours was “more than 1,200”, the tabloid said. The daily figure had recently come close to the peak of 1,050 cases set on March 26, according to an online dashboard https://covid19-dashboard.ages.at by public health agency AGES.
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