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Madrid seals entire districts, London threatens a second closure of the crown. And in Munich it will soon be mandatory to wear masks outdoors.
Demonstration in Madrid: 37 districts and suburbs of the Spanish capital were cordoned off on Monday, to the chagrin of residents.
Several Spanish newspapers warn of the “chaos of the crown in Madrid” due to the spread of the virus. There is great concern that the “virus bomb” in the capital of Spain could return the entire country to a state of emergency. The concern is not unjustified. Nowhere in Europe are there currently more new cases of infection than in the Madrid metropolitan area.
The weekly incidence in the Community of Madrid increases day by day to alarming levels. More recently, 323 cases of infection were reported per 100,000 inhabitants, in the southern area of Madrid even more than 500.
“Difficult weeks are approaching,” Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the ultra-conservative prime minister of the region, prepares the population for restrictions on public life and freedom of movement. 37 districts and suburbs, mostly in the region’s poorer south, were declared restricted areas on Monday. The police guard the streets and driveways. In the south of Madrid, the majority of workers and low-income people live in a confined space.
Higher values than in spring
In the Madrid metropolitan area alone, more than 5,000 new infections confirmed by tests in 24 hours were recently reported. Throughout Spain there were more than 12,000 infections in one day. Sad record values still above spring daily highs. The death toll has also risen to alarming levels again. Currently, between 100 and 200 people die from the virus every day across the country. Most of the deaths are over 80 years old.
Memories of the dramatic weeks of the first corona wave in spring are awakened. Back then, thousands of elderly patients in Madrid were turned away from crowded hospitals and died without medical attention. Sports halls had to be turned into makeshift morgues.
At the height of the crisis, the Madrid fairgrounds had become the largest field hospital in Europe with 5,000 beds. Those apocalyptic scenes could well be repeated. The army is already preparing to rebuild the gigantic emergency hospital at the fairgrounds.
Britons fear 50,000 new infections a day
Britain also reports a sharp increase in the number of infected people. The government’s two top scientists on Monday urgently warned the British of their inattention in the fight against the corona virus.
More recently, the number of new infections doubled each week, said Chief Scientific Advisor Sir Patrick Vallance. If the trend continues, the country will have to expect 50,000 new cases a day by mid-October and at least 200 deaths a day a month later. The Conservative government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson is planning further restrictions.
“We are going in the wrong direction,” said Professor Christopher Whitty, England’s top health official. The country faces a problem “for the next six months”: Sars-CoV-2 control in the fall and winter months, when respiratory illnesses and flu weaken the immune system anyway.
According to various studies, according to Whitty, no more than eight percent of the population has developed at least limited immunity to the coronavirus. The investigation is making great strides; Reliable vaccines can be expected in the first half of 2021 at the earliest.
In September, the number of new infections rose steadily, to around 4,000 a day recently. According to the Health Ministry, the number of people who died from Covid-19 was 41,777 on Sunday, with an average of 24 people per day who died last week.
Cobra’s crisis team is meeting Tuesday and Prime Minister Johnson may want to announce new restrictions on the same day. In the capital, the new measures are considered safe as of this week. A new blockade of the entire country for at least two weeks is no longer ruled out.
Germany looks at Bavaria with concern
In Germany, Munich in particular is currently becoming a Covid hotspot. On Sunday, corona figures in the Bavarian metropolis reached 55.6 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants in a week. That is still well below Spanish standards, but it does make Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter tighten the screw.
As of Thursday, a mask is required in certain highly frequented places in the city center. Additionally, the city is re-issuing contact restrictions as it did during the spring shutdown (a maximum of five people in public spaces).
Above all, Munich is tightening the rules for private celebrations like birthdays and weddings, but also for events like funerals. “We have to do everything we can to avoid crowds, and that’s especially true when it comes to parties,” Reiter said.
In general, health experts and virologists are concerned about the increase in infections in Germany. On Saturday, the country had nearly 2,300 new infections, the highest level since April. This Monday, the value of new infections was less than 922. The numbers are increasing, especially in North Rhine-Westphalia, but also in some of Berlin’s nightlife districts.
