As Covid-19 cases in Germany return to April levels, France has experienced unprecedented growth since May and Spain faces a new wave, the European continent is closely monitoring the latest rebound in the pandemic of coronavirus.

The pandemic has already claimed more than 780,000 victims worldwide. Europe is worried about a new rebound at the end of the summer holidays, despite drastic measures to contain the spread of the pandemic.

Germany has registered 1,707 new cases of coronavirus infection and ten deaths in the past twenty-four hours, authorities said on Wednesday August 20. The country is thus returning to the levels of the end of April, a period considered to be the peak of the pandemic.

Several popular areas not recommended

Berlin is increasing the number of warnings about the rise in cases of contamination - 228,621 in total - linked in large part to the return of many German tourists from abroad.

"The doubling of (new) cases" observed on average every day "throughout Germany over the past three weeks" constitutes a "development, which should not continue but which we should on the contrary curb", warned the Chancellor. Angela Merkel.

This situation has led the government to declare practically all of Spain and part of the Balkans, areas popular with German holidaymakers, as risk areas and to impose tests and quarantines on return.

The idea of ​​reducing the work week to four days resurfaced in Germany as a remedy to maintain employment during and after the unprecedented crisis caused by the coronavirus, a very controversial subject on the business side.

Almost 7,000 new cases in 24 hours in Spain

In Spain, the number of weekly deaths has doubled: the country recorded, Wednesday, 131 deaths in one week, while the region of Madrid is once again the most affected region ... as during the peak of the pandemic in the spring.

The number of new cases also jumped with 6,700 more positive identified in 24 hours, bringing the total to more than 370,000, the highest number in Western Europe.

Faced with this new wave, the country decided, Friday, August 14, to close nightclubs and ban smoking in the street if a safety distance of two meters could not be respected. So many measures that add to the already generalized obligation to wear a mask.

"Unprepared situation" in schools in France

France has also exceeded in the last 24 hours the 3,700 new cases of Covid-19, an unprecedented increase since May she announced Tuesday, August 19. In total, 16,747 people have tested positive for Covid-19 over the past seven days.

Mask wearing obligations are gradually extending to wider areas in many localities. Thus, in the South, Nice has made the mask compulsory throughout the city, like Toulouse.

At the same time, the approach of the start of the school year provokes the fears of teachers, who are worried about the conditions in which it will take place, while the rules of physical distancing were significantly relaxed in July, allowing all students to be able to return to class.

"It is a completely new situation of unpreparedness," said Sabine Duran, director of the Joséphine Baker elementary school in Pantin, in the Paris region.

Vaccine compulsory or not? The debate has begun

Since the onset of the disease in China in December, the pandemic has killed at least 781,194 people around the world, according to an AFP report on Wednesday August 19, based on official sources. More than 22 million cases of infection have been diagnosed in 196 countries and territories since the start of the epidemic.

While research accelerates to find a vaccine, the debate of its possible obligation is already launched. In Australia, getting vaccinated against the coronavirus should "be mandatory", Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said. The opposite of the United States, the most bereaved country on the planet but where the aversion of a part of the population is strong against restrictive measures such as the simple wearing of a mask, the anti-Covid-19 vaccine does not will not be mandatory.

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the American Institute of Infectious Diseases, said Wednesday that you "cannot" force or attempt to force people to be vaccinated. "We have never done it," said the senior official, a member of the White House cell on the virus.

With AFP

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