For a while, there were many success stories in Europe and life was beginning to get back to some sense of normalcy. But the coronavirus is now raging across the continent, and the WHO is warning of “alarming rates” of infection.
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Great Britain still has many restrictions in place and yet their infections are skyrocketing.
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Meanwhile, U.S. rates of infection and the number of deaths are going down from a peak of 79,000 a day in July to 37,000 today. Deaths have fallen below 1,000 a day.“Weekly cases have now exceeded those reported when the pandemic first peaked in Europe in March,” Kluge said. “Last week, the region’s weekly tally exceeded 300,000 patients.”
More than half of European nations have reported an increase of more than 10% in new cases in the past two weeks, Kluge added. “Of those, seven countries have seen newly reported cases increase more than two-fold in the same period,” he said.
“In the spring and early summer we were able to see the impact of strict lockdown measures. Our efforts, our sacrifices, paid off. In June cases hit an all-time low. The September case numbers, however, should serve as a wake-up call for all of us,” he said.
“Although these numbers reflect more comprehensive testing, it also shows alarming rates of transmission across the region.”
Great Britain still has many restrictions in place and yet their infections are skyrocketing.
New restrictions were imposed across England this week barring people from meeting socially in groups of more than six, of all ages, indoors or outdoors. Scotland and Wales have also tightened their social distancing rules.
From Friday, even stricter measures will apply in the northeast of England amid a “concerning rise” in Covid-19 infection rates there, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced in Parliament on Thursday.
The measures include a ban on socializing outside households or “support bubbles” and a mandated closing time of 10 p.m. for all bars, pubs, restaurants and leisure centers. They will apply to seven areas — including the cities of Newcastle, Sunderland and Durham — and will affect more than 1.5 million people.