Germany has entered the first day of a month-long “lockdown light”, shutting restaurants, bars, gyms and entertainment venues, but keeping schools, shops and workplaces open.
The lockdown is not as restrictive as the March-April one, and food outlets can still provide takeaways.
The coronavirus infection rate is still rising in Germany, though not as dramatically as in France and Belgium, which are now in tighter lockdowns.
Italy is also planning tighter rules.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte proposed curbs on travel to high-risk areas and an earlier night-time curfew. Museums and exhibitions would shut and shopping centres would close at weekends, under the plans now to be discussed in parliament.
Cinemas, swimming pools, theatres and gyms are already closed, and food outlets have to stop table service by 18:00.
Mr Conte warned that intensive care units could be overwhelmed by December. But Italy wants to avoid another full lockdown because of the economic cost.
As in Italy’s March crisis, the worst-hit region is Lombardy, which includes Milan. Next comes Campania, the region around Naples.
Under Germany’s new national measures, public meetings are restricted to 10 people maximum from two households. Private parties are banned.
There is some regional variation, as German states have a large degree of autonomy in public health. Hamburg, Lower Saxony and Berlin, for example, are exempting children under 12 from the two-households rule.
On Saturday, Austria and Portugal became the latest countries to announce new restrictions.
The latest official data from Germany’s respected Robert Koch Institute (RKI) shows 12,097 new infections in the past 24 hours, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 545,027 in Germany.
The totals for France, Spain and the UK – all with smaller populations than Germany – are all above a million.
On Saturday however, Germany recorded its highest daily total so far, with 19,059 cases.
Source:Fiilafmonline/BBC
