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More and more European countries are imposing new traffic restrictions or quarantine measures these days, hoping to stop the spread of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: social bans in the UK, traffic restrictions in France, the closure of schools in Poland or the total closure of the HoReCa sector in Belgium are some of them, reports the agency France Presse, taken over by Agerpres.
In London, a ban on indoor socializing with people outside the family home went into effect on Saturday. More than 15,000 new cases of contamination were registered on Friday in the United Kingdom, the saddest country in Europe in this regard (43,000 deaths).
In France, residents of ten major cities, including Paris and its suburbs, experienced their last night of freedom on Friday before a traffic restriction was imposed on Saturday between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.
The reestablishment of the state of health emergency in France, which will remain in force for at least a month, has been assumed as the spread of the virus accelerates: this Friday, more than 25,000 positive cases were reported in the last 24 hours.
The epidemic continues to take its toll “from the youngest to the oldest,” the French Public Health Agency said on Friday, calling this development “very worrying.”
In Belgium, the decision was made to close all restaurants and cafes for a month, a decision considered a “disaster” by HoReCa industry representatives in that country.
Belgium closes bars, Poland closes schools
Traffic restrictions have also been introduced in Belgium from midnight to 5:00 am.
“Week after week, the figures are doubling, increasing drastically, growing exponentially,” justified Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, the restrictive measures, while Belgium is one of the European countries most affected by the pandemic, with more than 10,300 deaths.
“Our hospitals are asphyxiated, the numbers are also high, as they were not in March when it was decided to go into isolation” for two months, said Belgian Mobility Minister Georges Gilkinet.
New restrictions also come into force in Warsaw and other major cities in Poland, which are considered “red zones”: colleges and secondary schools will be closed and distance education will be practiced, restaurants will have to close at 21:00, It will be prohibited marriage and the number of people admitted to shops, public transport and churches will be limited.
Italy also recorded 10,010 new cases of SARS-CoV-2 on Friday, the highest number ever reached in the country in 24 hours since the pandemic broke out.
Vaccine Expectations from American Laboratories
The virus has also disrupted European political activity: European Commission Director Ursula von der Leyen returned to solitary confinement after a member of her cabinet tested positive for the new coronavirus. At the same time, the head of the Finnish government, Sanna Marina, was also forced to withdraw from a European summit in Brussels, to go into quarantine after being in contact with a person who tested positive for COVID-19.
Just a note of hope, the American laboratories Pfizer and Moderna have announced that they plan to request authorization for their vaccines by the end of November in the United States, which would set a speed record for the development of a vaccine, notes AFP.
However, the possible launch of vaccination by the end of the year will be too limited to stop the epidemic alone, already in the third wave in the US, with an alarming increase in the number of contamination, hospitalization and death, writes the French news agency. .
Worldwide, all indicators are in red: more than 1.1 million deaths have been reported, according to a report released this Friday by AFP, based on official sources. On Thursday alone, the number of new contaminations reached 400,000 new cases.
Publisher: ML
