Infections rise in France, Spain shuts nightclubs

FRANCE’S coronavirus infection rate has crept higher as health authorities warn the country is going backwards in its battle against the pandemic.

Elsewhere in Europe, Spain has cracked down on nightlife, while German authorities were confident enough to send a cruise ship out to sea with 1,200 passengers for a weekend test of how the industry can begin to resume.

French health authorities said the closely-watched “R” infection gauge is now up to 1.3, suggesting that infected people are contaminating 1.3 other people on average.

France’s daily new infections also rising – up to 1,130 on Friday.

Covid-19 has already killed at least 30,195 people in the country and infection indicators now resemble those seen in May, when France was coming out of its strict two-month lockdown.

“We have thus erased much of the progress that we’d achieved in the first weeks of lockdown-easing,” health are authorities said, adding that the French appear to be letting down their guard during their summer holidays, with those testing positive making less of an effort to self-isolate.

They appealed for a return to “collective discipline”, asking people to work from home and get tested if they have any suspicions of infection.

In Spain, Catalonia became the latest region to crack down on nightlife, trying to halt new infection clusters.

The wealthy north-east region – home to Barcelona – ordered all nightclubs to close for 15 days and put a midnight curfew on bars in the greater Barcelona area and other towns around Lleida that have become contagion hot zones.

Spain has reported more than 900 new daily infections for the last two days as authorities warn that the country that lost 28,000 lives before getting its outbreak under control could be facing the start of a second major outbreak.