PARIS • European leaders yesterday warned of difficult months ahead as the resurgent Covid-19 pandemic forced the authorities to impose new restrictions to try to curb the spread of the disease.
The picture was unrelentingly grim as a string of countries reported record increases, led by France, which posted more than 50,000 daily cases for the first time on Sunday, while the rest of the continent passed the threshold of 250,000 deaths.
But Professor Jean-Francois Delfraissy, who heads the scientific council that advises the French government on the pandemic, told RTL radio yesterday that the country may be experiencing 100,000 new cases per day - twice the latest official figure.
"There are probably more than 50,000 cases per day. We estimate, on the scientific committee, that we are more in the region of 100,000 cases per day," he said.
France, the euro zone's second-biggest economy, is examining whether to tighten lockdown measures further to curb the resurgence of the virus, having already imposed night-time curfews on major cities including Paris.
European governments have been desperate to avoid the lockdowns which curbed the disease at the start of the year at the cost of shutting down their entire economies.
But the steady rise in new cases has forced them to ratchet up controls steadily.
"We are facing very, very difficult months ahead," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told a meeting of leaders from her Christian Democrat party, according to daily Bild.
Although Germany has fared relatively well compared with other countries in Europe, it too has seen a sharp rise in cases.
It reported 8,685 new cases yesterday, with the death toll rising by 24 to 10,056 and an infection rate of 74.9 per 100,000 people over the past seven days.
Residents of a district in the German state of Bavaria will from today be banned from leaving their homes without a valid reason and schools and kindergartens will shut for two weeks.
The lockdown in Rottal-Inn, home to some 120,000 people, will be the second imposed in Germany on a local basis since April.
The first was in Berchtesgaden - 110km to the south in the Bavarian Alps - which has been in lockdown since Oct 20.
In Belgium, an official warned yesterday that the country could run out of beds in intensive care units (ICUs) within two weeks if the number of people in hospitals continues to increase at its current rate.
Belgium has Europe's second-highest infection rate per capita after the Czech Republic, with new cases doubling every 13 days. The number of patients in ICUs is doubling every eight days, with 4,827 people in hospitals.
Health Ministry spokesman Yves Van Laethem said Belgium's maximum capacity of 2,000 ICU beds might be reached in two weeks if the increase continues.
"Within four days, by the end of the week, we should pass the milestone of 1,000 patients in intensive care," Mr Van Laethem said.
In Switzerland, Health Minister Alain Berset said new restrictions slated to be announced tomorrow to contain the rapid spread of Covid-19 will likely be in place for "a long time", as new infections hit 17,440 over the weekend.
"What we're preparing now will likely last a long time," Mr Berset said at a news conference in Lausanne. "We're not making decisions on Wednesday for Friday, we're making decisions for the next weeks and months," he said.
REUTERS
