China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Europe cranks up defenses as virus rebounds
Italy, UK among nations moving to fresh curbs after infections spike
ROME — European nations are again tightening their measures to contain a resurgent coronavirus after spikes in the number of cases in some countries where restrictions were eased.
Italy is preparing fresh nationwide restrictions, including on private parties, in response to a recent upsurge in cases, Health Minister Roberto Speranza said on Sunday.
Speranza said Italy needed to add restrictions after having eased them for several weeks, as it aims to avoid a new national lockdown.
“Now we need a change of pace, and to intervene with measures, not comparable to those adopted in the past, which could allow us to put the contagion under control and avoid tougher measures later on,” he said in an interview with the Rai state TV network.
Italy on Friday topped 5,000 new COVID-19 cases in a single day for the first time since March. Daily infections remained over 5,000 both on Saturday and Sunday. Deaths linked to the virus are far fewer, however, than at the height of the pandemic in the country in March and April.
Speranza said he proposed a ban on private parties, involving children and adults, while Rome would also target hours for bars and restaurants to reduce people’s contagion risks.
Other measures could involve sports with physical contact that offer no chance to wear a mask, he said without elaborating further.
A package of new restrictions was expected to be discussed with the regions on Monday and will be included in a decree that Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte could sign as early as Monday evening, Speranza said.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also on Monday was set to impose a tiered system of further restrictions on parts of England as its COVID-19 outbreak accelerates, though anger is rising at the cost of the stringent curtailment of freedoms.
Johnson’s three-tiered local lockdowns include shutting bars, gyms, casinos and bookmakers in some areas placed into the “very high” alert level, probably across the north of England, British media reported.
“The purpose of these measures is to get the virus under control,” Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden told Sky News. “The point of moving to this tiered system is so that in those most highly affected areas, we have got measures in place to control the virus.”
Britain recorded 12,872 new cases on Sunday and has registered 42,825 deaths, according to health authorities.
Germany should continue capping the number of people allowed at gatherings and clamp down on unnecessary travel as the country battles rising coronavirus infections, an aide to Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday.
Stricter measures needed
“We must be a bit stricter in places where infection chains spread mostly, which is parties and, unfortunately, also travel,” the chancellor’s chief of staff, Helge Braun, told public broadcaster ARD.
“We are at the beginning of a second wave and only the politicians’ and the population’s determination will decide whether or not we can avoid it, or slow it down.”
Germany had managed to keep the number of new infections and deaths lower than many of its neighbors but the daily number of new cases has leapt above 4,000 since Thursday, the highest since April.
COVID-19 cases in Germany increased by 2,467 over the latest 24-hour period to 325,331, according to data released on Monday by the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases.
Globally, there were 37,483,911 confirmed coronavirus cases and 1,076,846 deaths as of Monday, according to a tally kept by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University in the United States.
In India, with 66,732 new cases registered over the latest 24-hour period, the country’s COVID-19 tally rose to 7,120,538 on Monday, according to data released by the federal health ministry.
The death toll reached 109,150, with 816 deaths since Sunday morning, showed the ministry’s data.
In Colombia, there were 911,316 confirmed cases as of Monday afternoon, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally.