Germany is closing in on Britain’s daily coronavirus cases after it recorded nearly 20,000 new coronavirus cases today, as countries across Europe battle a second wave.
Germany’s national disease control centre the Robert Koch Institute said a record 19,990 infections had been confirmed in the past 24 hours today.
That tops the previous record of 19,059 set on Saturday and nearly matches the 20,018 cases recorded in the UK yesterday.
Meanwhile, coronavirus restrictions have been put on Paris after France recorded 40,558 new Covid-19 cases yesterday.
Greece has also announced a nationwide three-week lockdown starting on Saturday and record numbers of coronavirus cases were recorded in the Czech Republic and Poland.
In northern Europe, Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has gone into self-isolation and Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg described the situation as ‘very serious’ in her country.
Germany is closing in on Britain’s daily coronavirus cases after it recorded nearly 20,000 new coronavirus cases today
Countries across Europe are facing a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, with sweeping lockdowns being introduced across France, Greece, Germany and more
The total case tally in Germany, a nation of 83 million people, has been brought up to 597,583 since the pandemic began. Another 118 deaths raised the total to 10,930.
Like other European countries, Germany has seen a sharp rise in infections in recent weeks.
A four-week partial shutdown took effect on Monday, with bars, restaurants, leisure and sports facilities being closed and new contact restrictions imposed.
Shops and schools remain open.
Although Germany’s situation is alarming officials, many other European countries are in worse shape.
GERMANY: Gendarmenmarkt square in Berlin, Germany, lies empty after a four-week semi-lockdown was imposed in the country
GERMANY: Chairs of a restaurant are stacked up at a deserted Gendarmenmarkt square in Berlin, Germany, yesterday
FRANCE: A pedestrian walks down a deserted street, as stores and souvenir shops remain shut due to lockdown measures, near Sacre Coeur basilica in Montmartre in Paris, France, today
ITALY: A delivery man cycles through the deserted Navigli area in Milan, Italy, yesterday
France reported 40,558 new Covid-19 cases and a further 385 deaths, taking the country’s total death toll to 38,674 while the total number of confirmed cases stands at around 1.5 million.
Paris will be placed under more restrictions to curb the worsening Covid-19 pandemic, including a requirement for more shops to close in the evening, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo told BFM TV today.
Hidalgo said this would entail shutting down certain shops selling takeaway food and drink at 10pm local time, which would come on top of the existing national lockdown that has been imposed throughout France.
President Emmanuel Macron imposed a new lockdown last month, forcing non-essential shops to close, and making people use signed documents to justify being out on the streets.
CZECH REPUBLIC: Healthcare workers care for Covid-19 patient in an intensive care unit at the department of anaesthesiology and resuscitation (ICU) at Thomayer Hospital in Prague, Czech Republic, on Tuesday
French authorities believed more measures were needed in Paris as they felt there were still too many people out in the capital late at night, in spite of the lockdown.
Meanwhile, Greece’s prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has announced a nationwide three-week lockdown starting on Saturday.
He said the increase in coronavirus infections must be stopped before the country’s health care system comes under ‘unbearable’ pressure.
The main difference between this lockdown and the one Greece imposed in the spring is that kindergartens and primary schools will remain open.
Secondary schools will operate by remote learning. The lockdown will end on November 30.
GREECE: Pedestrians, wearing face masks, walk in Athens’ main commercial street today. Greece will re-enter a lockdown from November 7, for three weeks to battle a second wave of the coronavirus
Residents will only be able to leave their homes for specific reasons such as work, medical appointments or exercise, and after informing authorities by text message.
Retail businesses will be shut down but not supermarkets and food stores. Restaurants will operate on a delivery-only basis.
The country’s prime minister said he ‘chose once again to take drastic measures sooner rather than later’ after seeing an ‘aggressive increase in cases’ over the last five days.
On Wednesday, Greece announced a record 18 daily deaths and 2,646 new cases, bringing the total confirmed cases to just under 47,000 and the deaths to 673.
Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on the same day announced four regions in the country are being put under severe lockdown, forbidding people to leave their homes except for essential reasons.
SWEDEN: Prime Minister Stefan Lofven (pictured on Tuesday) said he was self-isolating after he found out a person close to him had met someone who was later tested positive
He announced the ‘very stringent’ restrictions on the so-called ‘red zone’ regions of high risk: Lombardy, Piedmont, Valle d’Aosta in the north and Calabria, the region forming the ‘toe’ in the south of the Italian peninsula.
Except for few circumstances, no one will be allowed to enter or leave ‘red zone’ regions or even travel between their towns, although people can exercise by themselves and while wearing masks near home.
Non-essential stores will be closed, although barber shops and hair salons can stay open, and only nursery, elementary and the first year of middle school will have in-class instruction.
Conte said the lockdown will begin Friday to allow time to organise. Designations will be reviewed every two weeks.
Today, Sweden’s prime minister Stefan Lofven said he was self-isolating after he found out a person close to him had met someone who was later tested positive.
Lofven said the person close to him, who was not identified, had tested negative but that on medical advice, he and his wife would self-isolate.
‘I am distance-working. We feel fine and do not have any symptoms,’ he said in a statement on Facebook.
He said he and his wife would take a coronavirus test as quickly as possible.
New cases in Sweden hit record highs last week and deaths have started to rise, while the resurgence has not yet at the levels seen in some European countries such as Belgium.
The surge in new cases, not least in Sweden’s biggest urban regions, saw Stockholm forced to temporarily suspend home testing for the disease this week after it was overwhelmed with requests. The testing was due to resume on Thursday.
‘We’re heading in the wrong direction, fast,’ Lofven said. ‘Together we make sure that Sweden overcomes this challenge too.’
In Norway, Prime Minister Erna Solberg told residents to avoid travelling domestically and instead stay at home as much as possible.
The number of cases has risen in many parts of Norway, hitting a record last week in a country which long had one of Europe’s lowest rate of infections.
Solberg told parliament: ‘We now see a sharp increase in the number of people testing positive.
‘The situation is very serious, and we don’t have time to wait and see if the measures we introduced last week are enough.’
POLAND: A member of the medical staff transports a stretcher past a medical tent used for COVID-19 testing near a hospital in Warsaw yesterday
Last week, Norway tightened restrictions on gatherings and foreign workers entering the country after a rise in coronavirus infections.
Now, Norwegians are urged to stay at home as much as possible in the coming weeks and to limit their social interactions, and bars across the country now have to close at midnight.
Norway recorded a revised 3,118 new COVID-19 cases last week, up from 1,718 the week before – both higher than the previous peak of 1,733 cases posted in the week March 16-22, according to data from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.
Meanwhile, Poland reported a record 27,143 new coronavirus infections today.
The country is approaching a threshold at which the government has said it could be forced to impose a nationwide lockdown.
On Wednesday, the government announced new restrictions and said it would impose a full lockdown if cases continue to surge.
The next threshold at which tougher measures would be required is 29,000-30,000 average daily cases for a week, government spokesman Piotr Muller told public radio station Polskie Radio 1 early today.
And coronavirus infections in the Czech Republic have climbed to record levels again.
The Health Ministry says the day-to-day increase of new confirmed cases hit a new record high of 15,729 on Wednesday.
That is 65 more than the previous record set on October 27.
The country of 10.7million people has had 378,716 cases since the start of the pandemic, with almost 170,000 of them in the last two weeks.
The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases has risen over the past two weeks from 92.88 new cases per 100,000 people on October 21 to 108.99 new cases per 100,000 people on Wednesday.
A total of 4,133 people have died, including a daily record of 223 on Tuesday.