Europe eyes stricter measures as countries set all-time daily records

From new alert system to local lockdown, European countries have been stepping up efforts to contain the resurgent wave of COVID-19 as they record the highest daily cases ever and the cumulative cases in the region exceed seven million.

As of Monday afternoon, Europe had registered 87,100 new COVID-19 cases in a 24-hour period, raising its total to 7,011,756, according to the latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO).

SURGING CASES

In recent weeks, a number of European countries have recorded a sharp rise in new COVID-19 cases, with some even breaking daily records at the peak of the pandemic earlier this year.

France, one of the hardest-hit in Europe, registered 26,896 new cases in a single day on Oct. 10, hitting an all-time high. This is in stark contrast to an average daily infection of some 4,500 in the first half of April when the spread of the coronavirus was accelerating and the epidemic started to overwhelm hospitals.

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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday that the number of cases in his country had quadrupled over the past three weeks and there were more people in hospital now with the respiratory disease than when the country went into lockdown in March.

The UK reported another 13,972 cases in the past 24 hours, raising the total to 617,688.

Germany, which has been widely considered as a model in Europe when it comes to the tackling of COVID-19, registered 2,467 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 325,331 on Monday. Last week, daily infections in the country rose sharply, peaking at more than 4,000 on Oct. 8.

With a population of some 11 million, Belgium has seen “an almost exponential increase” in the number of COVID-19 cases, totaling 162,258 to date.

The Sciensano national public health institute has reported a daily average of 4,154 new cases in the past seven days, a week-on-week increase of 89 percent. And the National Crisis Center estimated Monday that the country could reach 10,000 new infections per day by the end of this week.

STRICTER MEASURES

Amid the new wave of surging cases, European countries have been tightening restrictions to get a hold on the coronavirus, with several major countries rolling out new measures on Monday.