Europe and U.S. facing new round of shutdowns amid virus surge

Germany on Wednesday moved to shut down restaurants, bars and theaters all over again and France weighed demands for another nationwide lockdown as a new wave of coronavirus infections in Europe and the U.S. wipes out months of progress against the scourge on two continents.

The resurgence and the growing clampdown sent a shudder through financial markets, and stocks slumped.

“We must act, and now, to avoid an acute national health emergency,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said as she announced a four-week partial lockdown starting Monday.

French President Emmanuel Macron planned an address Wednesday night as many French doctors urged a nationwide lockdown, with 58% of the country’s intensive care units now occupied by COVID-19 patients.

Countries such as Switzerland, Italy, Bulgaria and Greece have closed or otherwise clamped down again on bars and restaurants and imposed other restrictions such as curfews and mandatory maskwearing. Both Italy and Germany set records for new infections Wednesday, with Italy reporting nearly 25,000 in a single day and Germany logging almost 15,000.

“We are deep in the second wave,“European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. “I think that this year’s Christmas will be a different Christmas.“

In the U.S., where practically every state is seeing a rise in cases, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker banned indoor dining and drinking in Chicago and limited the number of people gathering in one place.

“We can’t ignore what is happening around us, because without action, this could look worse than anything we saw in the spring,” he said.