SEPTEMBER SURGE
Coronavirus infections topped 30 million around the globe yesterday as the World Health Organisation warned of “alarming rates of transmission” across Europe and cautioned against shortening quarantine periods.
The WHO’s regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, said a September surge “should serve as a wake-up call for all of us” after Europe set a new record last week, with some 54,000 cases recorded in
24 hours.
“Although these numbers reflect more comprehensive testing, it also shows alarming rates of transmission across the region,” he told an online news conference from Copenhagen.
More than 30 million infections have been recorded and more than
940,000 people have died since the novel coronavirus emerged in China late last year, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Europe accounts for 4.7 million of the total.
Across Europe, Governments are battling to contain the fresh spike in cases, while wanting to avoid inflicting fresh damage on their economies and imposing broad new restrictions on their virus-weary populations.
In Britain, new measures will take effect today, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson warning pubs may have to close earlier to help avoid a “second hump” of coronavirus cases. Residents of northeast England, including the cities of Newcastle and Sunderland, will no longer be allowed to meet people outside their own homes or immediate social circles.
The Government, which is facing criticism over a lack of testing capacity, imposed rules across England on Monday limiting socialising to groups of six or fewer, as daily cases reached levels not seen since early May.
Britain has been Europe’s worsthit country with nearly 42,000 deaths.
Meanwhile Spain’s capital city, Madrid, backtracked on a plan for targeted lockdowns and said it would instead move to “reduce mobility and contacts” in areas with high infection rates.
Austria announced that private indoor gatherings would be limited to 10 people, including all parties, private events and meetings indoors. Chancellor Sebastian Kurz had warned this week that the alpine nation was entering a second wave of infections.
Outside of Europe, Israel is set to be the first developed country to enforce a second nationwide shutdown, to begin today.
Its Government called for hundreds of its citizens who are blocked on the Ukraine-Belarus border to return home. About 2000 Hasidic Jew pilgrims were hoping to reach the city of Uman for the Jewish New
Year this weekend.
In further comments yesterday, the WHO
Europe said it would not change its guidance for a 14-day quarantine period for those exposed to the virus.
The recommendation is “based on our understanding of the incubation period and transmission of the disease. We would only revise that on the basis of a change of our understanding of the science”, said WHO Europe’s senior emergency officer, Catherine Smallwood.
France has reduced the recommended length for selfisolation to seven days, while it is 10 days in Britain and Ireland. Several more European countries, such as Portugal and Croatia, are also considering shorter quarantines.
South China Morning Post