Europe scrabbles to combat 'second wave': COVID-19 Daily Bulletin

• The French government is not planning a new, nationwide lockdown , prime minister Jean Castex said on Friday, despite recording 9,843 daily cases the previous day, a record amount .

• England has brought in more local restrictions as UK daily case numbers jumped from 2,919 to a new post-lockdown high of 3,539 on Friday. This includes new limits on household meet-ups in Birmingham , the UK's second biggest city, coming as one study suggested cases were now doubling every seven days in England.

• Heir to the Spanish throne Princess Leonor is now in quarantine after her classmate tested positive for the coronavirus.

• Russia reported **5,488 new cases **on Saturday, putting its tally at 1,057,362, the fourth largest in the world.

• Czechia has recorded a record rise in daily figures , reporting 1,447 cases on Saturday.

• Spain recorded 4,708 new infections over 24 hours on Friday, bringing its total to 566,326, the highest in western Europe .

• The U.S. has vetoed a United Nations resolution for a "comprehensive and coordinated response" to the pandemic that recognized the World Health Organization's leadership role and had been backed by 169 countries out of 193.

• Spectators will be barred from the finish lines at all of the stages of the Tour de France in regions labeled as coronavirus "red zones ", organisers announced on Friday.

• Europe's first pandemic "travel bubble," created in May by Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, burst on Friday as Latvia said everyone arriving from Estonia had to quarantine for 14 days.

• Hungary's daily cases hit a record of 916 on Saturday as schools reopened, with the government saying the strict measures in the spring would not be reinstated.

• Austria is making face masks compulsory in more places including all shops and school corridors and limiting private indoor events to 50 people, with chancellor Sebastian Kurz saying the situation was "getting serious again."

England has brought in more local restrictions as UK daily case numbers jumped from 2,919 to a new post-lockdown high of 3,539 on Friday. /Oli Scarff/AFP

AROUND EUROPE

France

After speculation that France could introduce new lockdown measures, prime minister Jean Castex announced on Friday that his government would instead implement a raft of less radical measures.

With France suffering the world's seventh-highest COVID-19 death toll, president Emmanuel Macron's cabinet is trying to stem the virus's spread while keeping the economy running as much as possible. For example, schools are set to be kept open despite a spate of teacher strikes.

According to Castex, the new measures will include fast-tracked testing for priority cases and increased restrictions in targeted areas hit worst by the disease.

"The virus is with us for several more months and we must manage to live with it without letting ourselves get drawn once again into a narrative of nationwide lockdown," Castex said in a televized address.

France reported 9,406 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, down from record highs of 9,843 on Thursday.

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The UK

England is seeing an accelerated spread of the virus across the country after one study suggested cases were doubling each week.

This had led to an array of new measures from the government, including limits on different households coming together in Birmingham, England's second-biggest city.

From next Monday, gatherings of more than six people will be banned in England, with concerns that further restrictions will have to brought into effect as infections across the United Kingdom edged up to around 3,000 a day, almost triple the number a month ago.

According to government-backed research, the infection rate is growing across all age groups, with the exception of those over 65, as opposed to clustering in hospitals and care homes as seen previously.

Despite the government recently advising employees working remotely to return to their offices and encouraging people to "eat out to help out," health minister Matt Hancock called on the UK's population to act responsibly as case numbers surge.

"The pandemic is not over, and everyone has a role to play to keep the virus at bay and avoid further restrictions," he said.

Spain

Spain has been reporting record highs for daily coronavirus tallies, with its cumulative total at 566,326, the highest in western Europe.

The government has been regularly revising up its daily tallies, and although Friday's figure - 4,708** - **was a new record since it lifted lockdown in June, it is under the peaks reported in revised data. For example, one week ago, daily figures were revised up from 4,500 to over 11,000.

Health emergency head Fernando Simon said on Thursday that half the country's provinces were seeing a decline in the contraction rate, and that new infections could be stabilized. However, on Friday six new deaths took Spain's total toll to 29,747.

Since strict restrictions were lifted earlier in the year, daily infections have risen from their hundreds to their thousands, outstripping other European nations such as Britain, Italy or France.

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Source(s): AFP ,Reuters