Coronavirus: France orders new lockdown, Germany imposes toughest rules in months
- Governments across Europe act to stop a fast-rising tide of coronavirus cases
- United States also sees surge with tens of thousands of new cases daily
France will start a new month-long national lockdown on Friday as Germany also prepared to impose drastic new curbs amid explosive spikes in coronavirus infections across Europe.
The pandemic is surging worldwide, with hundreds of thousands of new daily infections taking the known global caseload past 44 million, with nearly 1.2 million deaths.
India, the second-worst hit nation in the world, crossed eight million cases on Thursday.
The dramatic lockdown decision from French President Emmanuel Macron came after worrying infection spikes in Europe that have forced governments to contemplate reinstating punishing stay-at-home orders.
“All of us in Europe are surprised by the spread of the virus,” Macron said in another televised address to the nation during which he stressed that the second lockdown would be less severe than the first.
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Close to 3,000 patients are in intensive-care units, compared with about 700 on the eve of the spring shutdown.