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Added on : 2020-10-29 10:30:25

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron each announced month-long national lockdowns Wednesday, saying health authorities have lost control of skyrocketing new infections while hospitals fill rapidly.The announcements came as governments across Europe struggle to contain a second wave of the virus in colder weather, even after the relative success of strict lockdown restrictions in the spring.

“We in Europe are all surprised by the propagation of the virus,” Macron said in a televised address to the nation.

“The virus is circulating in France at a speed that even the most pessimistic forecasts had not anticipated,” he said, adding that the number of infections had doubled in less than two weeks.

Germany has similarly witnessed a rapid deterioration of its virus response, after being praised in the first wave of the pandemic. The country’s contact-tracing program, paired with mandatory quarantines, had been held up as a model of how to contain outbreaks. Now German health authorities are unable to identify where 75 percent of new infections come from.

“We no longer have control of the spread of the virus,” Merkel said at a Berlin news conference, noting that the number of patients in the country’s intensive care units had doubled in the past 10 days.

“If the tempo of infections stays the same, we will reach the capacity of our health-care system within weeks,” she said. “That’s why it’s completely clear that we need to act and act now.” Starting Friday in France and Monday in Germany, restaurants, cafes and bars will close. In France, Macron said, residents will be permitted to leave their homes only for essential work or medical reasons and will be required to present “attestation forms” when they do. Leaders of Germany’s 16 federal states also agreed to new restrictions on social contacts, limiting public gatherings to a maximum of two households, with a limit of 10 people.

Both Germany and France plan to keep schools open — a priority for many European countries in this second wave — and, unlike in the spring, nursing home visits will be allowed.

Countries across the continent have desperately sought to avoid the return of national lockdowns. Switzerland on Wednesday ordered clubs closed and added new mask requirements, hoping to head off the need for more comprehensive, economy-crippling measures.

But governments are finding that more targeted, piecemeal measures may not be sufficient. Appeals by both French and German leaders to reduce contacts in recent weeks failed to slow the growth of new cases.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron each announced month-long national lockdowns Wednesday, saying health authorities have lost control of skyrocketing new infections while hospitals fill rapidly.The announcements came as governments across Europe struggle to contain a second wave of the virus in colder weather, even after the relative success of strict lockdown restrictions in the spring.

“We in Europe are all surprised by the propagation of the virus,” Macron said in a televised address to the nation.

“The virus is circulating in France at a speed that even the most pessimistic forecasts had not anticipated,” he said, adding that the number of infections had doubled in less than two weeks.

Germany has similarly witnessed a rapid deterioration of its virus response, after being praised in the first wave of the pandemic. The country’s contact-tracing program, paired with mandatory quarantines, had been held up as a model of how to contain outbreaks. Now German health authorities are unable to identify where 75 percent of new infections come from.

“We no longer have control of the spread of the virus,” Merkel said at a Berlin news conference, noting that the number of patients in the country’s intensive care units had doubled in the past 10 days.

“If the tempo of infections stays the same, we will reach the capacity of our health-care system within weeks,” she said. “That’s why it’s completely clear that we need to act and act now.” Starting Friday in France and Monday in Germany, restaurants, cafes and bars will close. In France, Macron said, residents will be permitted to leave their homes only for essential work or medical reasons and will be required to present “attestation forms” when they do. Leaders of Germany’s 16 federal states also agreed to new restrictions on social contacts, limiting public gatherings to a maximum of two households, with a limit of 10 people.

Both Germany and France plan to keep schools open — a priority for many European countries in this second wave — and, unlike in the spring, nursing home visits will be allowed.

Countries across the continent have desperately sought to avoid the return of national lockdowns. Switzerland on Wednesday ordered clubs closed and added new mask requirements, hoping to head off the need for more comprehensive, economy-crippling measures.

But governments are finding that more targeted, piecemeal measures may not be sufficient. Appeals by both French and German leaders to reduce contacts in recent weeks failed to slow the growth of new cases.

Editor & Publisher : Dr Dhimant Purohit

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