Pandemic, infections on the rise in half of Europe. France does not rule out a new lockdown

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25 September 2020 For Europe it could be the last chance to avoid returning to the dramatic levels of Covid-19 infections recorded in the spring and to avert a new general lockdown. The alarm was raised by the European Commissioner for Health Stella Kyriakides, who defined this moment as "decisive". "Some countries are reporting more cases now than they recorded in March," the Commissioner stressed, urging all member states to stand ready for a tightening of containment measures "at the very first sign of potential new outbreaks".

The trend is worrying in many European countries, including the United Kingdom, where, in the last 24 hours, a new peak has been recorded with 6,634 cases and 40 deaths.

In London, and in other states, including France and Austria, despite the substantial increase in infections, the numbers of seriously ill patients and victims remain low.

While in Spain, together with Croatia, Romania and Malta, among others, the alarm level is highest due to the increase in deaths and the state of hospitals, already under widespread pressure.

 To curb the pandemic, strict lockdowns have been adopted that could be rescheduled if infections continue to grow.

This is the case of the State of Israel which returned to a total blockade of two weeks after the peak recorded in recent days.

A scenario that European countries would like to avoid due to the possible disastrous impact on the economy.

The ECDC advised, in order to avoid it, to respect the rules of hygiene and social distancing and to keep the duration of the quarantine of 14 days and not to reduce it, as was done for example in France.

"The pandemic is far from over", warned the director of the EU agency Andrea Ammon, "we must not let our guard down".

France has recorded another 16,096 cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, against 13,072 confirmed yesterday, which bring the total to 497,237 since the beginning of the pandemic.

According to data released by the health authorities, another 52 people died in the last 24 hours, for a total of 31,511 deaths.

In the last week, the authorities specified, there were 4,258 hospitalizations, of which 718 in intensive care.

'' Don't play with a pandemic ''.

Thus the French Prime Minister Jean Castex defended the recent measures taken by the French government to contain the spread of the coronavirus by responding to 'France 2'.

Appealing to the '' responsibility '' which is '' necessarily collective '' in the face of Covid-19, Castex said that '' I do not want to return in March '' and that '' those who boycott '' are wrong. government.

The premier does not rule out the use of a new lockdown should the Covid-19 pandemic worsen in France, which today has confirmed over 16,000 new cases of infection.

Speaking to France 2 to explain the new measures adopted by the government, the premier said: "We must be careful and prudent. If we do not intervene, we could find ourselves in a situation similar to that of March. This could mean a new lockdown, if the situation worsen, and must be avoided. "

The government's goal is "simple", he stressed: "to avoid the saturation of our hospitals", especially the intensive care units.

Castex, responding to the criticism of the owner of a restaurant in Marseille, replied: "The measure is 15 days, and we hope to be able to reopen in 15 days".

And he assured that there will be "compensation" for the losses.     

In Spain there are 704,209 confirmed infections of coronavirus.

This was announced by the Ministry of Health of Madrid.

Spain thus becomes the first country in Europe to exceed 700 thousand infections, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.

France follows with around 520,000 cases and Great Britain with around 410,000.       

In the Iberian country, 2,852 school classes in Spain are subjected to quarantine after the discovery of positive cases for coronavirus.

This was stated by the Spanish Minister of Education, Isabel Celaa, explaining that in the first weeks of the reopening 4.5% of the schools in the country reported infections and 0.73% of the classrooms were isolated.

Similarly, Celaa assured that schools "are the safest places" for students, also because "they are places of early diagnosis and not places of contagion." During a press conference, Celaa said that the objective of the government is to continue to offer comprehensive, face-to-face education throughout the school year. A new lockdown is not currently underway, he added.

For the fourth time in a month, Germany exceeds 2,000 new coronavirus infections in one day, reaching 2143, the Robert Koch Institut reports this afternoon.

"After a temporary stabilization of cases at a high level, further growth of infections in the population is currently to be observed," reads a statement from the German public health institute this afternoon.

What is most worrying is the contagion situation in North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and the worrying increase in cases in Berlin, which reached 13,753 infections in all, with a daily increase of 199 new infections yesterday.

The mayor of the German capital, Michael Mueller, told the Zdf he assumed that "in fact we should introduce new restrictions".

In North Rhine-Westphalia, however, he plans to introduce the rule that private parties must be announced two weeks in advance and the participants must be notified.

The UK recorded another 6,634 cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, the highest daily figure recorded so far.

Yesterday there were 6,178 infections in the country.

The total number of infections to date is 416,363. "This is the highest figure recorded so far and a stark warning to everyone - said Yvonne Doyle, director of Public Health England, cited by the Guardian - the signs are clear. The positive rates are standing. increasing in all age groups and we continue to see spikes in hospitalization and ICU rates. We must comply with all the new measures taken to control the virus and download the new Covid-19 App which is the quickest way to know if you are at risk ".

According to reports from the health authorities, the deaths in the last 24 hours have been 40, for a total of 41,902 deaths.

Gb 6,634 new cases and 40 deaths in 24 hours.

Yvonne Doyle, director of Public Health England, said the figure is a "strong warning" as infections have increased across all age groups.

Doyle advised citizens to follow the new restrictions announced by the government this week and download the new NHS contact tracking app.

Meanwhile, the British government has announced that it could take part in a study that, in an attempt to more quickly determine if the Covid-19 vaccine works, infects volunteers who have been given the doses.

The approach is risky but proponents think it can produce results faster than other trials.

"We are working with partners to understand how we could collaborate on the development of a Covid-19 vaccine through these types of studies," said the UK Department of Business, and Industrial Strategy, "These discussions are part of our work to look for ways to treat, limit and hopefully prevent the virus so that the pandemic can be ended as soon as possible. "