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Coronavirus, new restrictions in half of Europe: Madrid is a case. Deaths are rising

There are more and more limitations on freedom of movement in Europe, the continent at the center of the “second wave” of the coronavirus, which is beginning to scare not only for the increase in cases, but also for the number of hospitalized people, hospitalizations in intensive care and (especially in France and Spain) even deaths.

Spain remains the country most in crisis: in the last two weeks here They’re dead825 people, on average 60 per day, and the resuscitation wards already host 1331 of the 10 thousand hospitalized for Covid. It is bad especially in the Madrid area: yesterday the president of the Community Isabel Díaz Ayuso announced in a dramatic press conference the entry into force of new heavy measures, “because we must avoid at all costs a new total lockdown and economic disaster “. The regional government thus created 37 red zones where the rate of infected has exceeded one thousand per 100 thousand inhabitants (in Italy, for comparison, it is 33), and which will affect 850 thousand people, many of them in the poorest areas of the capital. From there you do not enter or exit, except for work or extreme necessity reasons; group meetings are limited to 6 people, the parks will be closed, and the capacity of all commercial activities will be limited to 50%.

It is not yet a real lockdown, but some experts fear that “it will soon be necessary”, because the country has not been able to effectively track the infections and comply with some rules. And the consequences are already seen in hospitals: in Madrid there are over 400 people in intensive care, the wards are at 64% of the capacity and a row of emergency tents returned outside the Madrid field hospital.

Even the United Kingdom does not rule out a new total closure, where cases have skyrocketed to almost 5,000 a day (+ 32% since last week), and on Thursday the mobility of 10 million people was reduced, especially in the Northeast of the country: Health Minister Matt Hancock said yesterday a Sky News that “This is the last line of defense” before closing everyone in the house, a hypothesis «that we must avert all together, but that we will be ready to implement if necessary “. As Israel has already done on the eve of the Jewish holidays.

Even in France (122,000 cases in the last two weeks and 409 deaths), the situation has worsened: Thursday the record of new positives since the beginning of the pandemic, over 10,600 (with a cluster in the crowded Sorbonne University), and now “an increase in deaths, ”doubled from the previous week according to government reports. The most important French health institute has approved the use of salivary tests for those with symptoms, and in Nice the restrictions already applied in Marseille and Bordeaux have come into force.

They also worry the Czech Republic, Denmark, Holland: the latter, said Prime Minister Mark Rutte, is studying “regional measures” after the nearly 2,000 cases on Thursday, many of them in the largest cities. Greece is also poised for a squeeze on Athens.


18 September 2020 (change September 18, 2020 | 23:01)

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