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LONDON / MADRID: European nations from Denmark and Iceland in the north to Greece in the south announced new restrictions on Friday to curb the rise in coronavirus infections in some of its largest cities, and Britain was considering a new national lockdown.
Cases in the UK nearly doubled to 6,000 a day in the last reporting week, hospital admissions increased and infection rates soared in parts of northern England and London.
When asked by Sky News about the possibility of a second national lockdown next month, British Health Minister Matt Hancock said it should be seen only as a last resort, but that the government would do everything possible to combat the virus.
“The number of people in the hospital is doubling every eight days or so … we will do whatever it takes to keep people safe,” he said. “We keep these things under review.”
Britain imposed new COVID regulations in the North West, Midlands and West Yorkshire since Tuesday.
Infections have increased steadily in most of Europe over the past two months. Intensive care admissions and deaths have also started to rise, especially in Spain and France.
READ: French cities face new COVID-19 brakes in ‘race against the clock’
In Spain, which has seen more cases than any other European country, the region, including the Spanish capital Madrid, will limit movement between and within severely affected areas by a further surge in infections, affecting more than 850,000 people.
Regional leader Isabel Díaz Ayuso said on Friday that access to parks and public areas would be restricted and that meetings would be limited to six, but that people would not stop going to work in the most affected region of the country.
“We need to avoid the blockade, we need to avoid an economic disaster,” Ayuso told a press conference.
Authorities in the city of Nice, in southern France, banned gatherings of more than 10 people in public spaces and restricted the opening hours of bars, after new curbs were introduced this week in Marseille and Bordeaux.
France recorded nearly 10,600 new infections on Thursday, its highest daily count since the start of the pandemic.
People eat lunch at a deserted Le Petit Chatelet restaurant in the Quartier Latin as the country struggles to contain the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) while ensuring that economic and social activities can continue, in Paris, France, on September 18. 2020. REUTERS / Charles Platiau
In Denmark, where the 454 new infections on Friday were close to a record 473 in April, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the limit for public gatherings would be lowered to 50 people from 100 and ordered bars and restaurants to close early.
Iceland ordered entertainment venues and pubs in the capital area to close for four days between September 18 and 21.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said his government was preparing “regional” measures to combat the coronavirus outbreak after the Netherlands recorded a record 1,972 cases in the past 24 hours.
The measures will be detailed later on Friday and are expected to include stricter restrictions on public gatherings and earlier closing times for bars and restaurants. Access points include the major cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague.
A park ranger and a community support police officer patrol Northumberland Street amid the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Newcastle, Britain, on September 18, 2020. REUTERS / Lee Smith
In Greece, which emerged largely unscathed from the first wave of COVID-19 that hit Europe in March and April, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the government was ready to tighten restrictions in the Athens metropolitan area as it cases were accelerated.
Mitsotakis said Greece’s committee of health experts recommended additional restrictions on public gatherings, the suspension of cultural events for 14 days and other measures that “could be decided today … and come into effect on Monday.”
Europe still hopes not to follow the lead of Israel, which entered a second national lockdown on Friday at the start of the peak season for Jewish holidays, following a spike in new coronavirus cases.
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