Europe tightens restrictions to stem second Covid-19 wave

Europe tightens restrictions to stem second Covid-19 wave

A number of European countries yesterday (14) announced new restrictions to stem a deadly second wave of Covid-19.

France registered 32,095 new Covid-19 cases over the previous 24 hours to reach a total of 1,954,599.

Deaths in hospitals in France from Covid-19 rose by 359 over the previous 24 hours to reach a total of 44,246 so far.

Austria announced schools and non-essential shops would close from Tuesday, just two weeks after a partial lockdown was imposed.

"There are still many who say that infections don't happen at school, in shops or services," Chancellor Sebastien Kurtz told a news conference.

"But the truth is the authorities can no longer trace 77 percent of new infections, which means they no longer know where contamination is happening."

Greece, battling a saturated national health system, announced it would shut all schools after imposing a nationwide night curfew from Friday.

"Closing elementary schools was the last thing we wanted to do. This is a measure of how serious the situation is," Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias said.

Secondary schools had already been shuttered.

In Italy, the regions of Tuscany and Campania plunged into "red zones" of tough restrictions, which now cover 26 million of the 60 million population.

"There is no other way if we want to reduce the numbers of dead," Health Minister Roberto Speranza said, as the country's death toll rose by 544 to 44,683, one of Europe's worst.

New anti-virus curbs also came into force in Ukraine, with all non-essential businesses ordered closed for the weekend.

There were protests in several Germans cities against enforced mask-wearing, with police saying they used water cannon to disperse nearly 1,000 people in Frankfurt.

Hundreds of demonstrators also turned out in Portugal, defying a weekend curfew imposed on seven out of every 10 of the population of 10 million.

Poland became the latest country to report record figures with 548 deaths over 24 hours, just days after the government decided against introducing a nationwide quarantine.