Coronavirus, Afp: over 15 million cases in Europe

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November 17, 2020

There are over 15 million cases of coronavirus in Europe, according to calculations by the France Presse agency based on official data.

De facto lockdown since Friday also for almost half of the population of Scotland, where the local government, led by the independence first minister Nicola Sturgeon, had so far followed a different strategy than the national confinement bis reimposed by the central British one of Boris Johnson in England two weeks does.

Sturgeon today announced the transition to level 4 of the coronavirus alert - the most serious in the scale introduced on site - in 11 different Scottish territories, including the greater urban area, that of Glasgow: with severe restrictions on social, movement and economic activities destined to involve over 2.3 million inhabitants of Scotland out of just over 5 million.

Level 4 indicates the need to stay and work at home as much as possible, prohibits visiting other people's homes, limits to 6 relatives or friends who can meet outdoors in the maximum setting of two families , leaves only the essential shops open, decrees the closure of hairdressers, beauty salons, gyms, entertainment venues or various attractions, as well as the total stop to restaurants, pubs and cafes except for take away and bans travel from the city to cities, with specific exceptions.

However, it does not require the closure of schools and universities as in the rest of the Kingdom.

In essence, these are rules identical to the lockdown in place in England (with the exception of social contacts in public places, which in England are limited to a roof of two people not living together at a time).

Rules on which Sturgeon initially did not want to follow the example of Johnson's central Tory government, having adopted in the previous weeks in Scotland a more stringent mechanism of restrictions than England, but nevertheless graduated in a flexible way territory by territory;

and which is now instead forced to announce in the face of an infection curve that has become higher than in other areas of the United Kingdom. Speaking at the local parliament in Edinburgh, the first minister nevertheless spoke of "clear and short" measures, indicating the goal to return to at least level 3 and greater freedom for people before Christmas.

Johnson negative, but remains in precautionary isolation

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has tested negative for a coronavirus test (performed as part of a pilot project), but remains in precautionary isolation for 14 days as required by the government guidelines on the pandemic having met a Tory MP, Lee Anderson, who tested positive at Covid on Saturday. The fact that Johnson was already infected with the coronavirus in the spring, when he was also forced to stay three days in intensive care, and was then cured, does not guarantee him immunity based on the results of the most recent medical research. Although a second infection is currently considered rare.

has begun

The French Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, declared this morning that "we have begun the degrowth of the epidemic". Interviewed by BFM-TV-RMC, Véran added that he wanted to allow the French "to spend Christmas with the family", but cannot yet "provide a date for the end of the lockdown".

situation in Germany is still very serious even if the number of infections is no longer increasing so rapidly: Chancellor Angela Merkel said this, strongly urging "to reduce contacts". "The numbers of infections are no longer growing exponentially, but they are still too high. So we must reduce contacts, reduce contacts, reduce contacts", exhorted the Chancellor at an event organized by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, recalling that on the 30th -40% of the German population belongs to the most vulnerable groups.

Germany has confirmed 14,419 cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours, updating the overall toll of infections in the country to 815,746, according to data communicated by the Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases. The victims since yesterday are instead 267, for a total of deaths related to Covid-19 equal to 12,814.

Spain has recorded a record of daily deaths, 435 in the last 24 hours. This is the highest figure since the start of the second wave of Covid-19 in the country. The Spanish media reported it. The total number of cases has reached 1,510,023 and that of deaths to 41,688. Over the past two weeks, over 219,000 people tested positive.

In Romania, in the last 24 hours, 8,262 new infections have been recorded, out of 31,082 tests carried out, and 182 deaths. The totals since the beginning of the epidemic, according to the regional media, are 373,474 infections and 9,261 deaths to date. Romania remains the country in the Balkans most affected by the pandemic, and the one that has carried out the largest number of tests so far, more than 3.5 million.