Coronavirus: Europe bristles as Covid curbs tightened

Italian demonstrators staged Europe’s latest public rally against new anti-coronavirus restrictions.

Police arrest an extreme far right Forza Nuova party activist during a protest against Covid restrictions in Rome on Sunday. Picture: AFP

Italian demonstrators staged Europe’s latest public rally against new anti-coronavirus restrictions early on Sunday, as more countries tightened social distancing rules over the weekend to fight surges in infections.

France extended a curfew and Belgium brought forward its own curbs as new infections surged in many parts of the world.

The World Health Organisation has warned of an “exponential” rise in infections threatening health systems’ ability to cope with a second wave of the pandemic, testing many nations that appeared to have the virus under control earlier this year.

The US suffered a record high number of new daily COVID-19 cases for the second day in a row on Sunday (AEDT), including Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, the latest in a list of administration figures, including US President Donald Trump and wife Melania, to be infected.

Marc Short began quarantine and was assisting in the contract tracing process, Mr Pence’s spokesman Devin O’Malley said.

“Vice President Pence and Mrs Pence both tested negative for COVID-19 today, and remain in good health,” he said.

Mr Pence, who has been campaigning ahead of the November 3 election, would maintain his schedule in consultation with White House doctors, said the spokesman.

Figures from Johns Hopkins University showed the US reported 88,973 new infections to 8.30pm on Saturday, substantially above the previous day’s 79,963.

A total of 8,568,625 cases have been reported in the US with 224,751 deaths, the highest in the world in absolute terms.

Governments are now struggling to balance new restrictions against the need to revive economies already battered by earlier draconian lockdowns after the virus first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.

But populations weary of social isolation and economic hardship have bristled at new restrictions. About 200 masked far-right militants clashed with Italian riot police during a demonstration against a new curfew in Rome shortly after midnight on Sunday, throwing flares and firecrackers at officers.

Italy is reeling from its worst post-war recession after a two-month national lockdown prompted by one of Europe’s worst outbreaks, and authorities have so far sought to avoid reimposing more drastic quarantine restrictions.

The latest protests there cap a week of similar demonstrations against government restrictions in several parts of Europe, including Spain, Switzerland and the Czech Republic.

After Germany recorded its 10,000th coronavirus death on Saturday, Chancellor Angela Merkel said: “The order of the day is to reduce contacts, (and) to meet as few people as possible.”

Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Saturday he had become the latest public figure to test positive as the EU country faced record infection rates.

Mr Duda, 48, said in a tweet that he had tested positive but “felt fine” and was still on the job.

Spain became the first European country earlier in the week to officially record a million coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic. People across the nation were bracing for a national state of emergency, overnight curfews and other new containment measures.

Colombia became the latest country to record a million confirmed COVID-19 cases on Saturday, as France recorded a 24-hour record of more than 45,000 infections a day after passing the same milestone. The French government extended an overnight curfew to cover areas home to about 46 million people — two out of every three French.

“The difference compared to the first wave is that now we also have all the chronic pathologies of the winter period to take care of,” emergency doctor Agnes Ricard-Hibon told local television.

On Friday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that “too many countries are seeing an exponential increase in COVID-19 cases and that is now leading to hospitals and intensive care units running close to or above capacity. We urge leaders to take immediate action to prevent further unnecessary deaths.”

The pandemic has claimed the lives of 1.1 million people and infected more than 42 million globally, with the WHO warning the northern hemisphere was at an especially critical juncture.

AFP