Frankfurt, Germany (AP Photo / Michael Probst)

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October 30, 2020Another surge. There are 18,681 cases of coronavirus registered in

Germany

in one day, according to data released by the Robert Koch Institut. The total of positives thus amounts to 449,694. 77 have died in the last 24 hours, 10,349 since the start of the pandemic.



A few hours after the start of the new lockdown in

France

, at midnight today, long queues were registered to leave Paris. Traffic jams have affected 700 kilometers of roads in the Ile-de-France region as of last night, according to local media.



Under the new restrictions, it is forbidden to leave the house except for essential work or medical reasons. President Emmanuel Macron explained that the new measures are necessary because the country risks "being overloaded by a second wave that will undoubtedly be heavier than the first".



Daily cases in France are at April levels, and yesterday the authorities recorded 47,637 coronavirus infections and 250 deaths. According to French media, many Parisians have left the city to pass the lockdown in the countryside. Traffic and queues were also recorded around Lyon and Bordeaux.



According to WHO European director, Professor Hans Kluge, in a meeting with European health ministers,

Europe

"is once again the epicenter of this pandemic". In the old continent, the number of positivity cases has exceeded 10 million since the onset of the disease, with more than 1.5 million new positivity diagnosed in the past week alone.



"At the risk of sounding alarmist - said the WHO European director - I must express our real concern by reiterating our firm commitment to stand by governments to support them in the best possible way".



Kluge then explained that hospitalizations in Europe have risen to "levels never seen since spring", with deaths increasing by as much as 32% last week.



Also making matters particularly difficult was the failure of diagnostic systems to keep pace with Covid-19's "ultra-high-speed transmission", which has led to unprecedented rates of positivity in most countries. Europeans.



To address this situation, almost all the nations of the old continent have now adopted more or less rigid containment measures. Just today the national lockdown is triggered in France which will in any case allow the continuation of some activities such as school and work where smart working cannot be adopted.