Global deaths top 1.2mn as Europe tightens curbs
Germany on Monday led a tightening of Covid-19 restrictions in Europe as global fatalities topped 1.2 million, after the deadliest week for the pandemic in the continent since April.
The virus has infected over 46mn people worldwide, with more than 1.2mn deaths.
To curb the spike in Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel has ordered a round of shutdowns from Monday until the end of the month. Germans will not be confined to their homes, but bars, cafes and restaurants must close, as well as theatres, operas and cinemas.
New restrictions are expected to be unveiled in Belgium, which has the world’s highest number of Covid-19 cases per capita, and in Italy, the first country in Europe to impose a lockdown during the first wave.
Portugal and Austria have announced partial or full lockdowns to start this week. Authorities in the Swiss canton of Geneva said they would close bars, restaurants and non-essential businesses from Monday night.
Now in its second wave in Europe after emerging in China in December last year, the pandemic has discriminated against no individual or country.
In Britain, the media reported
that Prince William, second-inline to the throne, contracted coronavirus in April but kept his diagnosis secret, with one tabloid saying “he didn’t want to alarm the nation”.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is facing opposition from his own party as he prepares to ask British lawmakers to back plans for a second national lockdown to combat the exponential spread of Covid-19.
Johnson on Monday will provide the House of Commons with details of a proposed fourweek lockdown scheduled to begin on Thursday.
The head of the World Health Organization said he was selfquarantining after someone he had been in contact with tested
positive. “I am well and without symptoms but will self-quarantine over the coming days, in line with @WHO protocols, and work from home,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted, stressing the importance of complying with coronavirus guidance.
In China, a testing blitz in the region of Xinjiang uncovered the country’s worst Covid-19 outbreak since the summer, even as authorities said all infections have been found. It reported six new asymptomatic infections on Monday. Xinjiang’s tally since the outbreak began with the detection of an asymptomatic 17-year-old on October 24 stands at 57 infections and 223 asymptomatic cases, authorities said.