Fresh curbs adopted to stem second wave in Europe

BRUSSELS－A number of European countries are putting into place new restrictions as a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic accelerates across the continent.

France reported a daily record of 52,010 new cases on Sunday, two days after becoming the second European country to register more than 1 million coronavirus cases, according to the Public Health Agency.

The grim second wave of the pandemic has forced the French government to impose curfews in a majority of regions across the country, requiring more than two-thirds of the French population, or around 46 million people, to stay home between 9 pm and 6 am for six weeks.

The spokesmen for Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and President Sergio Mattarella both said that they tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, when the number of COVID-19 infections topped 20,000 for the first time in Italy in a 24-hour span.

Struggling with an explosive rebound, Conte announced on Sunday in a nationally televised news conference that pubs, bars, restaurants and ice cream shops must shut down at 6 pm as part of new measures to contain the pandemic, effective through Nov 24.

The prime minister added the government will promote smart working in public administration and that it "strongly recommends "the private sector does the same in order to reduce crowding on public transportation.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Sunday announced a state of emergency, days after the country became the first EU member to pass the 1 million infection mark.

The state of alarm, effective from Sunday, is due to run for 15 days. But the prime minister said his government aims to keep it in force until May 9 next year, a move that needs the support of a majority in the country's 350-seat congress.

Also on Sunday, another 19,790 people in Britain tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the national tally to 873,800, with 44,896 coronavirus-related deaths, official figures showed.

The latest figures came as British doctors raised grave concerns about the pandemic situation in the autumn and winter period.

Cases have also risen strongly in Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria and Lithuania, some of which have reported record daily surges in infections in recent days.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said on his Facebook page on Sunday that he had tested positive for COVID-19.

Having reported record daily increases in COVID-19 cases for five consecutive days as of Sunday, Croatia's National Civil Protection Headquarters announced new measures was scheduled to take effect from midnight on Monday.

Mandatory distancing

The measures include mandatory physical distancing, a ban on all public events with more than 50 people, and a new limit on the number of people attending weddings and funerals.

Globally, there are a total of 43,018,215 confirmed coronavirus cases and 1,153,964 deaths as of Monday, according to a tally kept by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University in the United States.

As the world struggles to contain the pandemic, countries across the globe are racing to find a vaccine.

The World Health Organization said that as of Oct 19, there were 198 COVID-19 candidate vaccines being developed worldwide, 44 of which are in clinical trials.

Mexican health authorities acknowledged on Sunday that the country's true death toll from the coronavirus pandemic is far higher than thought, saying there were 193,170"excess" deaths in the year to Sept 26, with 139,153 of those judged to be attributable to COVID-19.

That is about 50,000 more deaths than Mexico's official, test-confirmed death toll of about 89,000, and about 56 percent higher than the previous estimate of 103,882 pandemic deaths. Mexico has a low testing rate, and officials previously acknowledged many people did not get tested.

Xinhua - Agencies