Europe, U.S. reel as infections now are surging at record pace
Coronavirus cases around the world have climbed to all-time highs of more than 330,000 per day as the scourge comes storming back across Europe and spreads with renewed speed in the U.S., forcing many places to reimpose tough restrictions eased just months ago.
Well after Europe seemed to have largely have tamed the virus that proved so lethal last spring, newly confirmed infections are reaching unprecedented levels in Germany, the Czechrepublic, Italy and Poland.
Most of the rest of thecontinent is seeing similar danger signs.
France announced a 9 p.m. curfew in Paris and other big cities. Londoners face new restrictions on meeting with people indoors. The Netherlands closed bars and restaurants this week. Theczechrepublicandnorthern Ireland shut schools. Poland limited restaurant hours and closed gyms and pools.
In the United States, new cases perdayareontherisein44states, with many of the biggest surges in the Midwest and Great Plains. Deaths per day are climbing in 30 states.
“I see this as one of the toughest times in the epidemic,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, an infectious-disease specialist at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “The numbers are going up pretty rapidly. We’re going to see a pretty large epidemic across the North
ern Hemisphere.”
Dr. Anthonyfauci, theu.s. government’s top infectious-disease expert, said Americans should think hard about whether to hold Thanksgiving gatherings.
“Everyone has this traditional, emotional, warm feeling about the holidays and bringing a group of people, friends and family, together in the house indoors,” he said on ABC’S “Good Morning America.” “We really have to be careful this time that each individual family evaluates the risk-benefit of doing that.”
Responses to the surge have varied in hard-hit states.
In North Dakota, Republican Gov. Doug Burgum raised the coronavirus risk level in 16 counties this week but issued nomandated restrictions. In Wisconsin, a judge temporarily blocked an order from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers
that would limit the number of people in bars and restaurants.
South Dakota on Wednesday broke its record for COVID-19 hospitalizations and new cases and has had more deaths fromthe disease less than halfway through October than in any other full month. Despite the grim figures, GOPGOV. Kristi Noemhas resisted pressure to step up the state’s response to the disease.
Dr. Marc Larsen, who oversees the COVID-19 response at Kansas City-based St. Luke’s Health System, said the system’s rural hospitals are seeing surges just asbadas in Kansas City.
“Early on in this pandemic, it was felt that this was a big-city problem, and now this is stretching out into the rural communities where I think there has not been as much emphasis on masking and distancing,“he said.
Newcases in theu.s. have risen over the past two weeks from about 40,000 per day on average tomore than52,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. (Cases peaked in the U.S. over the summer at nearly 70,000 a day.)
Deaths were relatively stable over the past two weeks, at around 720 a day. That’s well below the U.S. peak of more than 2,200 dead per day in late April.
Worldwide, deaths have fallen slightly in recent weeks to about 5,200 a day, down from a peak of around 7,000 in April.
Dr. Hans Kluge, the head of the World Health Organization’s Europe office, urged governments to be “uncompromising” in controlling the virus. He said most of the spread is happening because people aren’t complying with the safety rules.
In France, which reported more than 22,000 new infections Wednesday, Presidentemmanuel Macron put 18 million residents in nine regions, including Paris, under a curfew starting Saturday. The country will deploy 12,000 police officers to enforce it.
Italy set a one-day record for infections and recorded the highest daily death toll of this second wave, adding 83 victims to bring its count tonearly36,400, the second-highest in Europe after Britain.
In Britain, London and seven other areas face restrictions that will mean more than 11 million people will be barred from meeting with anyone indoors fromoutside their households and will be asked to minimize travel starting this weekend.