Europe Covid deaths surge past 300,000
US daily cases exceed 129,000, third day over 100,000
paris — A second coronavirus wave ploughed on relentlessly through Europe which reported more than 12 million cases and 300,000 deaths as swathes of Italy returned to lockdown and the British city of Liverpool trialled city-wide testing on Friday.
The continent has become the new epicentre of the pandemic and a total of 300,688 deaths have been reported in Europe since the Covid-19 virus first hit.
Two-thirds of these fatalities have been registered in the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Spain and Russia.
As countries raced to try and curb their spiking cases, they imposed new lockdowns despite signs of growing unrest, with several Italian regions shutting down and Greeks facing fresh stay-athome orders from Saturday.
US infections surged by at least 129,606 on Friday, according to a Reuters tally, the third consecutive daily rise of more than 100,000 cases as a third wave of Covid-19 sweeps the United States.
In the midst of the presidential election, the spike marks the fourth time that more than 100,000 cases of the new coronavirus have been reported in the world’s worst-hit country, which is reporting about 95,000 daily cases on a seven-day average.
Twenty of the 50 states reported record increases on Friday, the same as Thursday when the national daily total crossed 120,000 for the first time. The Midwest remains the hardest-hit region based on daily new cases per capita.
In Italy, a lockdown was ordered for prosperous Lombardy, fellow northern regions Piedmont and Val d’Aosta, as well as one southern region, Calabria.
Giorgio Gori, the mayor of the northern city of Bergamo — the epicentre of Italy’s coronavirus crisis earlier this year — said “there is more tiredness and more distrust around” than during the first lockdown, after people protested outside his home.
In England, which has also shut down, the northwestern city of Liverpool on Friday began the country’s first city-wide coronavirus testing programme. All 500,000 residents will be offered repeat tests, even if asymptomatic, under a pilot scheme that could be rolled out nationwide if successful.
“It’s a big step to save our loved ones, friends, everybody. I really hope as many people as possible use the opportunity,” said Jurgen Klopp, the manager of the Liverpool football team.