People wear masks to curb the spread of Covid 19 as they walk past Duomo gothic cathedral in Milan. Photo / AP
People wear masks to curb the spread of Covid 19 as they walk past Duomo gothic cathedral in Milan. Photo / AP
Doctors are warning that Europe is at a turning point as the coronavirus surges back across the continent, including among vulnerable people, and governments try to impose restrictions without locking whole economies down.
With newly confirmed cases reaching records, the World Health Organisation warned on Friday that intensive care units in a number of European cities could reach maximum capacity in the coming weeks.
Director of infectious diseases at Milan's Luigi Sacco hospital Massimo Galli. Photo / AP
In response to the surge, the Czech Republic has shut schools and is building a field hospital, Poland has limited restaurant hours and closed gyms and schools, and France is planning a 9pm curfew in Paris and other big cities. In Britain, authorities are closing pubs and bars in areas in the country's north, while putting limits on socialising in London and other parts of the country.
In the United States, new cases per day are on the rise in 44 states, and deaths per day are climbing in 30.
A paramedic takes swabs to test for Covid-19 at a drive-through at the San Paolo hospital, in Milan. Photo / AP
"If we don't get a handle on this, we run the risk of getting into a situation that's harder to control," Bertrand Levrat, the head of Switzerland's biggest hospital complex, told The Associated Press. "We are really at a turning point — things can go both ways."
But while officials are sounding the alarm on rising cases, they are also wary of imposing the stricter nationwide lockdowns that devastated their economies this spring. Instead, they are trying more targeted restrictions.
Workers of catering sectors take part in a protest organised by restaurants and bar owners in Barcelona, Spain. Photo/ AP
France is deploying 12,000 extra police to enforce its new curfew; Saturday night will be the first time establishments will be forced to close at 9pm. Restaurants, cinemas and theaters are trying to figure out how can survive the forced early closures.
One movie theatre chain will start opening at 8am in hopes of making up evening losses. Since Paris restaurants generally open at 7pm or 7.30pm for dinner, some might close altogether because it no longer makes financial sense to stay open for such a short shift.
A man wearing a face mask walks over Westminster Bridge in London, with the London Eye in the background. Photo / AP
"The French culture world isn't invincible, it needs help," author and filmmaker Yoann Sfar, who has a new movie coming out, said on Friday on RTL radio.
Italy, the first country outside Asia to detect local transmission of the virus, has banned pickup sports and public gatherings after health officials said the resurgence had reached ''an acute phase" following a period of relative grace after its particularly strict lockdown.
The governor of Campania, which was mostly spared in the spring but is seeing infections skyrocket, urged quick action, noting the area around Naples is the most densely populated in the country.
A teacher sits in an empty classroom and prepares materials for children at a closed school in Prague. Photo / AP
"Half measures are not worth anything any more," Vincenzo de Luca said in a Facebook video. He already announced the closure of schools for the rest of the month, against the wishes of Rome.
Massimo Galli, the director of infectious diseases at Milan's Luigi Sacco hospital, said Italy's surge is not the result of record testing, as policy makers have suggested, but a sign of a real return among the population most at risk of developing serious illness if infected.
Demonstrators hold banners as they walk over Westminster Bridge in London. Photo / AP
That is a worrying trend since a tide of serious cases has the potential to swamp hospitals, and it's one that can be seen in other countries on the continent as many see even higher numbers than Italy.
France, Spain and Britain recorded more than 300 infections per 100,000 residents over the past two weeks, compared to Italy's quickening but relatively low 106.
The Czech Republic reported more than 700 people infected per 100,000, and the country's military will start to build a field hospital at Prague's exhibition centre this weekend — a reminder of the dark days of spring when many countries put up makeshift facilities to ease pressure on overwhelmed medical centres. The government is also negotiating with neighbouring Germany and some other countries for Czechs to be treated abroad if the health system can't handle them.
People line up to get tested for Covid-19 at a drive-through at the San Paolo hospital, in Milan, Italy. Photo / AP
At a press briefing on Friday, Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead on Covid-19, voiced concern about the rising numbers and said they were being accompanied by rising hospital admissions, including to ICUs.
"We know of a number of cities across Europe where ICU capacity will be reached in the coming weeks," she said.
But Van Kerkhove added that advancements in treatment and increased testing capacity put many countries in a better position than a few months ago.
People wearing masks walk the streets of Bayonne, southwestern France. Photo / AP
In Italy, Milan is the epicentre of the resurgence, and its hospitals are strained.
"We have a situation that reminds one quite distressingly of the one that we already have experienced," Galli of Milan's Sacco hospital told The Associated Press, referring to the peak in March and April when Italy hit its record of 969 deaths in one day. The country recorded 83 deaths on Thursday — twice previous days, but far off earlier levels.
Already in Milan, Galli said the number of elderly patients or those with other risk factors is growing, indicating the virus has moved beyond its initial late September's expansion, when most of the cases were mild or asymptomatic caught by screening and contact tracing.
A man walks past a closed restaurant in Barcelona, Spain. Photo / AP
Since then, mixing among families, within companies, and among students outside school has fuelled the spread to more vulnerable people, he said, renewing pressure on Milan's hospitals.
"The trend is already there, and it is frankly alarming," he said, though he noted not all of Italy was yet experiencing a surge.
But that, he said, might only be a matter of time. Galli said Italy "will follow in the footsteps" of its European neighbours unless the transmission chain is blocked in the next two weeks.
A traffic policeman talks on the phone at the Vittorio Emanuele II arcade, in Milan, Italy. Photo / AP
He urged more restrictions be imposed on public transport and leisure activities if authorities want to avoid another lockdown — bad both for the economy and the social fabric.
While Italy's lockdown in the spring bought it more time, Galli said the current resurgence shows "how quickly there is a risk of wasting the results of even a very decisive and very important intervention".
Italian health officials have declared the country in an "acute phase" after the country set records for new daily cases higher than even during the March-April peak. Photo / AP
