New feedlots are already bearing fruit. Second wave of Covid-19 shows signs of slowing down in Europe – Executive Digest

European countries have struggled with a second wave of infections since September, but the second wave appears to show signs of slowing down in Belgium and stabilizing in Germany and Italy. This is due to the new confinements and restrictions implemented in the countries in October.

Belgium, for example, which recorded some of the daily ‘highs’ in Europe, has been reporting lower numbers in recent days. Cases of covid-19 peaked on October 30 – close to 24,000 – while this Monday, 4659 new infections were reported.

The government twice tightened restrictions last month to deal with the outbreak, and people are now working from home and are unable to visit family and friends.

In Germany, partially confined until 2 November, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday that the restrictions were causing the number of cases to stabilize “a little, but still slowly”. Europe’s largest economy registered 10,824 new cases on Monday, compared to 16,947 the previous day.

In Italy, 27,354 infections were reported on Monday, compared with 40,092 on Friday. The country also tightened restrictions earlier this month, although they were not as severe as in the first wave, when schools and universities were closed.

Still, there are other countries where infection rates are still high. This is the case of the Czech Republic, Austria, Luxembourg and Lichtenstein, which have the highest cumulative number of infections per 100,000 inhabitants in Europe, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

In Luxembourg and the Czech Republic, for example, the numbers have yet to show a clear sign that new infections are decreasing, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. On Monday, countries reported 1325 and 5407 new cases, respectively, compared with 713 on Friday and 7355 on Sunday.

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