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New restrictions in the largest cities in France, one million tests and partial closure for 13% of the population in Spain and new limits on meetings in the United Kingdom. Across Europe, there is a resurgence in the number of covid-19 cases, with the World Health Organization (WHO) warning of “alarming rates of transmission” on the continent, and governments, albeit reluctant to provoke the new stops. of economic activity are forced to resume some of the restrictive measures that had been previously withdrawn.
The resurgence of cases is particularly strong in Spain and France. In Spain, according to data published this Saturday, 14,389 new cases were registered on Friday, which helped the average of the last seven days to overcome the barrier of 10,000 new daily cases, a value higher than those in the area. 8000 that reached the peak recorded in March, at the beginning of the pandemic.
The scenario is very widespread throughout the Spanish territory, but it is especially worrying in Madrid, where the accumulated number of cases is already 682 per 100,000 inhabitants. A figure well above the national average of 267. Among the most affected Spanish regions are Navarra, with 558 accumulated cases per 100,000 inhabitants, and La Rioja, with 420.
In France, the number of new cases registered on Friday exceeded 13 thousand. Also here, as in Spain, the daily rate of new infections exceeds that registered at the beginning of the pandemic. In the past seven days, the daily average was 8,800 new cases, more than the peak of 8,400 registered in mid-April.
Spain and France, with 215 and 129 new daily cases per million inhabitants, currently exceed 117 new cases per million registered inhabitants, for example, in the USA In Portugal, this indicator has been around 80 in the last days.
In other countries, although with less intensity, the increase in cases is also very evident. In Germany there were 2,197 new cases on Friday, a rate that had not been seen since April. And in the UK, the number of new cases has once again exceeded 6,000. Other countries in central Europe, which in the first phase of the pandemic managed to avoid a large number of cases, are now experiencing a significant acceleration. Slovakia and the Czech Republic are examples of this phenomenon.
Given these results, the WHO, which for some time had focused its attention on other parts of the globe, raised the tone of its warnings about Europe. “We have a very serious situation before us,” said the WHO director for Europe, Hans Kluge, noting that “more than half of the European countries have registered increases in the number of cases of more than 10% during the last two weeks. ”, and“ in seven of these countries the number of new cases has more than doubled during the same period ”.
Another WHO official, Maria Van Kerkhove, expressed concern about the responsiveness of European health systems. “We have not yet reached the peak of the flu, so we are concerned that the increasing number of hospitalizations and the use of intensive care could overload a system that is already under great pressure.”
Partial confinement
In this scenario, several European governments are announcing measures to try to contain the acceleration of the pandemic. They do so, for now, partially, targeting regions or sectors of activity where the rate of contagion is especially high.
The return to total confinement, in the style adopted at the beginning of the crisis, has not been announced in any European country. It only happened in a nearby country, Israel, where the authorities on Friday opted to enter a second national confinement, closing restaurants, hotels or gyms, on the eve of the start of the country’s highest holiday period.
In Europe, after seeing economies that experienced record falls during the second quarter of the year and still trying to strengthen the timid recovery of the following months, governments, including Portugal, are trying to avoid taking measures that lead to a new total stoppage of activity.
Even so, the return of strong restrictions is already evident in various parts of Europe, adopted this time in a more surgical and partial way.
In Spain, the executive and regional authorities have chosen, in the Community of Madrid, to move towards mobility limitations in 37 areas, those in which the incidence of cases is higher. About 850,000 people are prevented from leaving their area of residence, except in cases of absolute necessity, such as going to work, going to the doctor or going to school.
At the same time, Spanish authorities will move towards mass testing to better identify contagion outbreaks. About a million people will be tested in a week.
In France, where Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire announced that he too contracted the disease, restrictions were imposed in Marseille and Bordeaux during the week, limiting, for example, visits to nursing homes, parties on the beaches. or public events, even those that take place outdoors. New measures of the same type are envisaged in other large French cities.
Several other countries have announced measures in recent days. The Irish government has banned the use of interior spaces in restaurants and bars and discouraged travel abroad. In Greece, companies were forced to keep 40% of employees working remotely, meetings were limited to nine people, concerts were suspended, and cinemas were closed, all in the Athens region. In the Netherlands, the closing time for bars was brought forward to one in the morning.
