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France announced a full nationwide lockdown for the second time this year and German officials imposed a four-week partial lockdown on Wednesday (Thursday NZT), as governments across Europe sought to stem a rapidly rising tide of coronavirus cases.
The World Health Organization says that the European region, which includes Russia, Turkey, Israel and Central Asia, by its definition, accounted for nearly half of the 2.8 million new coronavirus cases reported globally last week.
Petr David Josek / AP
Anti-Covid measures have sparked protests across Europe.
The UN health agency said virus-related deaths were also on the rise in Europe, with an increase of around 35 percent from the previous week, as well as hospitalizations due to Covid-19. “We are immersed in the second wave,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels.
“I think Christmas this year will be a different Christmas.” The European Union, Britain, Norway, Switzerland and Iceland alone accounted for 1.1 million cases in the past seven days, he said, “and we expect this number to continue to increase in the next two to three weeks, and rapidly.”
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German officials agreed to a four-week closure of restaurants, bars, cinemas, theaters and other leisure facilities in a bid to stem a sharp rise in coronavirus infections, Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
Merkel and the country’s 16 state governors, responsible for imposing and easing the restrictions, agreed to the partial closure in a video conference.
Markus Schreiber / AP
A woman holds up a sign that reads “culture dies” while attending a protest by people working in the entertainment industry and events against the economic policies of the German government to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
It is scheduled to go into effect on Monday and last until the end of November.
Merkel said: “We must act, and now, to avoid an acute national health emergency.”
Restaurants will still be able to serve takeout. Stores and schools will remain open, unlike the closure of Germany during the first phase of the pandemic.
The decision was made hours after Germany’s disease control agency said a record 14,964 new confirmed cases were recorded across the country last day, bringing the national total for the pandemic to 449,275.
Arne Dedert / AP
Germany is also considering lockdown style restrictions to combat emerging cases.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced a second nationwide closure from midnight Thursday to December 1, but said schools would remain open. More than half of the country’s intensive care units are occupied by Covid-19 patients.
Thibault Camus / AP
French President Emmanuel Macron is considering taking decisive action to combat the growing cases of Covid-19.
French military and commercial planes are transporting critically ill virus patients to other regions as hospitals fill up. France reported 288 new virus-related deaths in hospitals in 24 hours on Tuesday and 235 deaths in nursing homes during the previous four days.
Both figures marked the biggest increase since May. “(France has been) dominated by a second wave,” Macron said in a nationally televised speech on Wednesday (local time).
“Nothing is more important than human life,” he added. “We have between 40,000 and 50,000 new contaminations identified every day.”
The government is scheduled to present details of the blockade on Thursday (Friday NZT). As in the spring, people will have to stay home unless they want to buy essentials, go to a doctor’s appointment or exercise, which will be limited to one hour.
Overall, Europe has seen more than 250,000 virus-related deaths since the outbreak began, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Great Britain and the Czech Republic have also seen an increase in new cases in the past 14 days, while infection rates in Germany were lower but steadily rising.
Merkel had lobbied the country’s state governors to quickly agree to a partial shutdown. After the move was authorized, the chancellor asked people not to take unnecessary trips and said hotels will not be able to accommodate people on tourist trips. “We can say that our healthcare system can meet the challenge today,” Merkel said.
Pool / Getty Images
German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends a press conference after a video conference with German state premiers on the current situation of the coronavirus.
“But if the rate of infections continues like this, we will reach the limits of what the health system can handle in a few weeks.” The planning has caused distress in Germany’s hotel industry, with thousands of venue owners staging a protest on Wednesday (local time) at Berlin’s historic Brandenburg Gate to demand more financial support from the government.
The loud but peaceful demonstration contrasted with the angry scenes of recent days, when anti-mask protesters clashed with police in the German capital, the Czech Republic and in several Italian cities.
A protest in the Sicilian capital Palermo by business owners against the new restrictions turned violent Wednesday night after being infiltrated by anarchists. Italy’s Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese has claimed that various fringe groups are using the crisis as an excuse for violence. In Italy, the mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, spoke on Wednesday (local time) against the closure in the capital of Lombardy, the epicenter of the resurgence of the new virus in Italy.
Alessandra Tarantino / AP
Cooks and restaurant owners protest against government restriction measures to curb the spread of Covid-19, closing restaurants at night, in the Piazza del Pantheon in Rome in Italy.
Von der Leyen, the head of the EU, acknowledged the increasing price that the continuing crisis is taking. “This time we have two enemies,” he said. “The coronavirus itself and the fatigue of the corona, that’s the growing fatigue when it comes to precautionary measures.”
In Prague, protesters wearing terror masks marched against virus restrictions on Wednesday despite the Czech Republic holding the grim European record of nearly 1,450 cases per 100,000 people in the past fortnight, closely followed by Belgium, according to the Center. European for Disease Prevention and Control.
The Czech Health Ministry said the daily increase in new infections in the country reached a record 15,663 on Tuesday, more than was reported on Wednesday in Germany, which has eight times the population. The Czech government has further toughened its regulations, imposing a nationwide curfew between 9 pm and 6 am that began on Wednesday (local time).
Previously, it restricted free movement, closed shops, schools and restaurants, forced the use of masks indoors and outdoors, and banned sports competitions, but the number of infections has continued to rise.
While Germany has fared better than many European countries, officials warn that it is also beginning to lose control of the situation, citing the explosion of cases in the Czech Republic as a reason for earlier closures.
Virginia Mayo / AP
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, says that this is not the time for Europe to relax.
Economists said the additional restrictions must be carefully calibrated to avoid a second severe hit to businesses. “A national lockdown, as we have seen, devastates an economy and would add significant complications to the ongoing economic recovery,” said Fiona Cincotta, an analyst at online trading firm GAIN Capital.
But Thomas Gitzel, chief economist at the VP Bank Group of Liechtenstein, said a temporary lockdown could be less damaging than a prolonged drop in consumer spending, as infection levels remain stubbornly high.
In France, there was some understanding about the difficult choice facing the government. “I do not blame the government for reflecting before making decisions that will have serious consequences in many areas such as health, education and the economy,” said Parisian Gilles Weinzaepflen. “Those are not easy decisions to make.”
