Paris Under Curfew: Europe Reacts As Countries See Highest-Ever Coronavirus Numbers
[www.npr.org]

Coronavirus restrictions are taking effect in the Netherlands, the U.K., the Czech Republic and other parts of Europe on Wednesday as nations try to reverse an alarming wave in new cases. The continent is now seeing more new coronavirus cases – an average of 100,000 daily — than at any other time during the pandemic.

Bars, restaurants and schools are being shut down or sharply limited, and officials are working to bolster hospital capacity, to accommodate an expected influx of new COVID-19 patients.

Numbers that showed signs of taking off in late August and September are now skyrocketing. Europe reported more than 700,000 new coronavirus cases last week – a surge representing a 36% weekly increase, as NPR's Reese Oxner recently reported.

Europe's infection rate "has been increasing for 77 days," the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said in its most recent weekly report for the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom.

Here, a sampling of the situation in Europe:

In France, President Emmanuel Macron used a nationally televised interview Wednesday night to announce the start of nightly curfews in Paris and eight other densely populated areas in an effort to control the coronavirus in what are deemed "health emergency zones."
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Italy reported its largest one-day total of new cases Wednesday, with more than 7,300 – easily surpassing the terrible heights the country reached in March. The rise comes one day after Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte signed a decree putting new limits on gatherings, sports and school activities. Bars and restaurants are still allowed to operate until midnight, but only if they offer table service.

In Spain, the regional government of Catalonia is ordering all bars and restaurants to close their on-premises operations, saying they can only sell to-go items for the next 15 days. Shopping areas, theaters and gyms will have to operate at reduced capacity. It's the only way to avert an even deeper shutdown, officials say.
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The Czech Republic, hard hit by the new coronavirus wave, has closed schools as of Wednesday. Restaurants and bars are closed for everything except takeout orders – and they can only operate until 8 p.m., according to Radio Prague International.

"With Europe's highest number of infections per capita, the Czech Republic is also canceling nonessential medical procedures to maximize hospital capacity,"
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The Netherlands is enacting a partial lockdown because of a rise in new cases. The government declared on Tuesday, "The coronavirus has been given too much room to spread again."

The restrictions close all food and drink establishments, except for carryout orders. No more than four people from different households can gather, indoors or outside.
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The U.K. instituted a three-tier alert system on Wednesday that will group different regions of England under restrictions in an effort to avoid repeating a national lockdown. So far, the only region under a "very high" alert is Liverpool – where people took advantage of the last few hours before the restrictions to party in the streets.
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As predicted. It got colder, people moved indoors, restrictions eased.

I really hate to think what our winter is going to be.

.....Winter......is coming......

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I reject your reality and substitute my own!

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Lemon Drop
As predicted. It got colder, people moved indoors, restrictions eased.

I really hate to think what our winter is going to be.

Yeah, it's not a mystery to us anymore what kind of conditions there are when there is high transmission rates of the virus. Yet, many of us seem compelled to create those conditions even when we don't have any physical need to do so.

Right wingnuts are going off the rails - threatening civil unrest and violence over the 10 PM Paris curfew.

Wave II.

In the US we are still on wave 1.