Emmanuel Macron Announces Curfew in Paris and Eight Other Cities to Fight Second Wave of COVID-19 Cases

Paris: France became the latest European country to toughen anti-coronavirus measures on Wednesday, imposing a curfew on Paris and eight other cities starting Saturday, while Germany and Ireland also increased restrictions.

“We have to act. We need to stop the spread of the virus,” President Emmanuel Macron told public television, announcing a shutdown between 9 pm and 6 am that will remain in effect for up to six weeks.

Other major French cities, such as Lyon, the Mediterranean port of Marseille, and south-west Toulouse, will similarly impose curfews, with around 20 million people affected in total, out of a total population of about 67 million.

Just minutes before Macron’s announcement, his government had said it would extend the state of health emergency.

With more than a million deaths from coronavirus and almost 40 million cases worldwide, regions like Europe that suppressed the first outbreak are again faced with difficult decisions about how to control a new wave without the economic devastation brought on by national lockdowns.

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced tougher measures on gatherings and the wearing of masks.

“I am convinced that what we do now will be decisive to overcome this pandemic,” said the leader.

New infections in Germany continued to rise on Wednesday, surpassing 5,000 cases in 24 hours, a level not seen since the lockdown imposed on Europe’s largest economy in the spring.

“We are in a situation where I think we can still flatten exponential growth,” said Lothar Wieler, director of Germany’s disease control agency. “But for that we all have to make an effort.”

Worsening of the situation

In Spain, bars and restaurants will close throughout the northeast region of Catalonia for the next 15 days, as the country faces one of the highest infection rates in the European Union, with almost 900,000 cases and more than 33,000 deaths.

The measures also went into effect in the Netherlands, including restrictions on the sale of alcohol and new mask requirements, while Northern Ireland announced a four-week closure of pubs and restaurants.

Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheal Martin announced a series of new curbs along the border with the British province of Northern Ireland, including the closure of non-essential retail stores, gyms, swimming pools and leisure centers.

Earlier Wednesday, Northern Ireland’s decentralized government announced plans to close pubs and restaurants for four weeks, tighten restrictions on social gatherings and extend the mid-term school holidays to counter the growing number of cases there.

The infection rates “must be rejected now or we will be in a very difficult place very soon,” Prime Minister Arlene Foster told lawmakers in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Lock ‘disaster’

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is also under increasing pressure to impose stricter measures to reduce spiraling rates in England, including a two-week “circuit breaker” lockdown.

Johnson said a new UK-wide lockdown would be a “disaster” but refused to rule it out because the government’s scientific advisory committee approved a temporary shutdown.

And in Italy, authorities recorded 7,332 new cases on Wednesday, the highest daily count the worst-affected country has seen so far.

Rome has already imposed new and stricter rules to control the resurgence of the virus, including the end of parties, amateur football matches and late-night bar snacks.

Beyond Europe, Iran on Wednesday announced new travel restrictions affecting the capital Tehran and four other major cities, as well as new single-day records of COVID-19 deaths and new infections.

And the death toll in neighboring Iraq since the start of the pandemic has exceeded 10,000.

At least 1,089,039 people around the world have died from the coronavirus since it emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019, according to a AFP count using official figures. At least 38.3 million cases have been recorded worldwide.

In online talks, the G20 finance ministers and central bankers agreed to extend a moratorium on debt payments from the world’s poorest countries for another six months and fell behind in the spring.

The virtual talks, organized by current G20 president Saudi Arabia, came a day after the International Monetary Fund warned that global GDP would contract 4.4 percent in 2020 and that the damage inflicted by the pandemic will be would feel for years.

Drug-related setbacks

As Europe imposed new restrictions, hopes that vaccines or treatment would provide relief took a hit with the suspension of two clinical trials in the United States.

US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly said it had suspended the phase 3 trial of its antibody treatment due to an unspecified incident, the second in less than 24 hours after Johnson & Johnson had a similar problem with its candidate vaccine.

Despite the setbacks, which health experts say are normal as testing ramps up enormously in its later stages, the World Bank approved $ 12 billion for developing countries to finance the purchase and distribution of vaccines, tests and treatment.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow had registered a second vaccine called “EpiVacCorona”, developed by a top-secret Siberian laboratory, to follow its first “Sputnik” hit.