France becomes 2nd worst hit EU country, record daily caseloads haunting Europe

With a record 42,032 new infections confirmed in the last 24 hours, France has counted an accumulative total of 1,041,075 COVID-19 cases as of Friday, becoming the second European Union (EU) country passing the grim one-million mark after Spain.

SPIRALING TREND

Data showed that the spread of coronavirus is on a spiraling trend in Europe. Record daily caseloads are being refreshed more frequently in many European countries amid the second wave of the COVID-19.

On Friday, a slew of European countries reported record new cases, including Poland (13,632), the Netherlands (10,007), Romania (5,028), Portugal (3,270), Hungary (2,066), Denmark (859), and Latvia (250). Some of them — France and Denmark, for instance — even hit new highs in two consecutive days.

As of 3:34 p.m. CEST on Friday, two EU countries, namely Spain and France, were among the top 10 countries globally with the most confirmed cases on the dashboard of the World Health Organization (WHO). The United Kingdom ranked the 11th with 810,471 confirmed cases.

While these major European countries grabbed the world’s attention with their caseloads, some of their small peers are more worrisome in terms of the incidence rate.

According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), as of Friday, the Czech Republic and Belgium were the only two countries among the EU/EEA and the UK with the 14-day cumulative number of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 above 1,000. The Czech Republic (1148.5) and Belgium (1019.8) are far higher than Spain (379.1) and France (488.6).

ECDC has developed epidemiological criteria to categorize the epidemiological situation in countries as being “of concern” or “of serious concern.” Countries whose epidemiological situation does not meet the criteria for being either of them are categorized as having a “stable” situation.

As of Friday, only six European countries, namely Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Liechtenstein and Norway, were categorized as “stable.” Still,the agency warned of ongoing transmission among them, saying the situation must be closely monitored.

FINE-TUNED MEASURES

Despite the drastic resurgence of the pandemic across Europe, most countries on the continent resorted to varied, fine-tuned and targeted measures rather than a general lockdown adopted in the first wave to try to contain the spread of the virus.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Friday said all steps should be taken to avert a second national lockdown, as a recent spike in new coronavirus cases boosted fears across the country.

In a video speech delivered at Work Festival 2020, Conte said the goal was to “contain the infection, and avoid a halt of production and working activities, as well as the closure of schools and public offices.”

“We must avert a second generalized lockdown, and in order to do so we must be vigilant and ready to intervene any time, wherever is necessary,” said the Italian PM.

Italy has so far reacted by implementing increasingly restrictive provisions, including a ban on private parties.

While general lockdown is shunned by most European countries, curfew has become a major option for many of them to deal with the second wave. Several hardest-hit European countries, including Spain, France, Germany and Belgium, have brought in curfews at least on parts of their territories.

Some countries even opted for partial lockdowns. The Dutch government announced last week a “partial lockdown” to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country.

More countries are fine-tuning their restrictive measures, including extending the mandatory scope of mask-wearing and narrowing the social bubbles.

LIVE WITH CORONAVIRUS

With the anti-virus measures, Europeans are learning how to live with the virus, at least for now.

Based on the scientists’ projections, French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters on Friday during a visit to a hospital in Pontoise, northwest Paris that French people have to live with the COVID-19 at least until next summer.

“The question is how to live with the virus during this time? In the phase we are in, we have no other choice… That is to say to reduce our social life to the maximum, limit contacts and break its circulation,” he said.

Ensuring hospitals not overwhelmed under the impact of the second wave has become a priority of many European governments.

Germany currently has a capacity of just under 30,000 intensive care beds, of which 21,473 or 72 percent were already in use as of Thursday, according to the Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI) online registry for intensive care beds.

The Latvian medics also worried that the health system might become overloaded at one point, with COVID-19 patients quickly filling hospital beds.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference on Friday that “Too many countries are seeing an exponential increase in cases and that is now leading to hospitals and ICU running close or above capacity and we’re still only in October.”

As the world is struggling to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, countries including Germany, France, Italy, China, Russia, Britain and the United States are racing to find a vaccine.

According to the website of the WHO, as of Oct. 19, there were 198 COVID-19 candidate vaccines being developed worldwide, and 44 of them were in clinical trials.

Read alsoEuropean countries set record COVID-19 daily numbers as Spain’s total cases top 1 million

Source: Xinhua