COVID-19 Situation in EU Countries

France

The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in France jumped by 523 to 35,541, the largest daily rise since end April, confirming the worsening of the epidemic situation which has forced the government to consider "difficult decisions" to halt the epidemic resurgence.

France Considering Re-Introducing of Self-Isolation

According to figures posted on the government's data website, the total number of confirmed cases since the COVID-19 outbreak in France stood at 1,198,695, after 33,417 people contracted the coronavirus in the past 24 hours. Currently, 18,978 COVID-19 patients are being treated in hospital, including 2,918 on ventilators.

On a sharp rise since late August, France's daily COVID-19 cases hit a record of 52,010 on Oct. 25 after passing 10,000 on Sept. 12, 20,000 on Oct. 9, 30,000 on Oct. 15 and 40,000 on Oct. 22.
President Emmanuel Macron will address the nation on Wednesday evening to unveil a new package of tools to contain the virus resurgence, his office announced.

"We must expect difficult decisions," Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told France Inter radio early Tuesday.
Asked about a possible second lockdown, he added, "All options are on the table."
Since September, extra measures were implemented in regions on maximum alert to stem the spread of the virus, including closure of bars, pools and gyms. Entertainment facilities including circus, dance clubs, trade shows are banned, while all outdoor facilities, such as stadiums, remain open for less than 1,000 people.

As the second wave gets harder, the government introduced nightly curfews in 54 departments, involving more than two-thirds of the French 67 million population. Starting from last Friday midnight, people have to stay at home from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. until early December.

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UK

The coronavirus-related deaths in Britain rose by 367 to 45,365, the highest daily increase since May, according to official figures released Tuesday.

Another 22,885 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 917,575, the data showed. Dr Yvonne Doyle, medical director of Public Health England, warned that the rising number of deaths was likely to "continue for some time".

"We continue to see the trend in deaths rising and it is likely this will continue for some time," she said in a statement.
"Each day we see more people testing positive and hospital admissions increasing...Being seriously ill enough from the infection to need hospital admission can sadly lead to more COVID-related deaths," she said.

Earlier Tuesday, separate figures released by the British Office for National Statistics showed that weekly coronavirus-related deaths have risen in England and Wales for the sixth consecutive week and have now reached the highest levels since mid-June.
Up by 53 per cent on the previous week, a total of 670 deaths were registered in the week ending Oct. 16 with COVID-19 mentioned on the death certificate, compared with 438 the week before.

According to the calculation by the London-based The Guardian newspaper, the COVID-19 death toll across Britain has passed 61,000, based on the total number of deaths registered by statistical agencies across England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The latest figures were announced as the northern English town of Warrington moved into the highest level of coronavirus restrictions since Tuesday in a bid to curb the fast spread of coronavirus.

From 12:01 a.m. (0001 GMT), the area went into England's Tier Three restrictions, which include a ban on the mix of different households both indoors, in a private garden or at most outdoor hospitality venues.

Under the measures, all pubs and bars will also be forced to close unless they are serving substantial meals. People can still meet up following the Rule of Six outdoors in places including parks or the countryside.

The northern English city of Nottingham and parts of the surrounding county will also move into Tier Three of COVID restrictions, which will come into force from 12:01 am (0001 GMT) on Thursday. 

Germany

New COVID-19 infections in Germany increased by 11,409 within one day to a total of 449,275, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) announced on Tuesday.

Last Saturday, a new daily record was reached in the country, with 14,714 cases, according to the RKI, the federal government agency for disease control and prevention. On the same day, the number of deaths exceeded the 10,000 mark.

The number of infections per 100,000 inhabitants in the last seven days increased to 80.9 nationwide as of Monday, according to the latest RKI daily situation report. At the same day last week, the so-called seven-day-incidence in Germany was only 45.4 cases.

"Currently, an accelerated increase of transmissions in the population in Germany can be observed," the latest RKI daily situation report noted. Meetings of people, particularly indoors, "should be avoided," according to the institute.

Half of the German citizens supported the current measures to counteract the spread of COVID-19 in the country, as 51 per cent said that the measures were "sufficient", a decrease of eight percentage points compared to the beginning of the month, according to a DeutschlandTrend survey published by the public broadcaster ARD on Tuesday.

With an increase of five percentage points, 32 per cent even said that COVID-19 containment measures did not go far enough, according to the survey.

Furthermore, half of German citizens said that controls in Germany to check whether the COVID-19 regulations were being met were not reaching far enough, the survey found.

On Wednesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel and the minister presidents of the federal states are scheduled to discuss further COVID-19 measures.

"We know a little more about the virus today," said Merkel in a statement on Tuesday. "We know how we can protect ourselves. We can proceed more purposefully."

"But we can also see from the rising numbers that if we do not keep to what we know about the virus, we will end up back in situations that are extremely difficult," stressed Merkel. 

Czech Republic

The government of the Czech Republic will ask the parliament to extend the coronavirus-related state of emergency for another month, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on Tuesday.

The state of emergency has been in place in the Czech Republic since October 5. The spring coronavirus-related state of emergency lasted from March 12 to May 17. "The COVID-19 disease environment requires continued support of the counter-pandemic emergency response. Therefore, the government decided at an extraordinary meeting today to ask the parliament to extend the state of emergency for another 30 days, until December 3," Babis told reporters.

The Czech state of emergency entailed closures of schools, food businesses, entertainment sites and all shops but grocery stores. People were ordered to not leave home except for essential reasons. Face masks were made mandatory outdoors and the consumption of alcohol in public spaces was banned.

On Monday, the Czech government declared a curfew from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. from October 28 to November 3.
The Czech health authorities have recorded over 10,000 new cases over the past day, which took the cumulative toll to 162,785 cases. A record high of 15,252 new cases per day was recorded last Friday. (ANI/Sputnik)

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