Coronavirus hits back in Europe
Global health authorities said Thursday European countries should be able to ride out a surge in coronavirus cases without reimposing full lockdowns, as the World Bank warned the crisis could push 100 million people into extreme poverty.
Worrying spikes in cases reported Thursday in France, Italy, Spain and Germany showed the pandemic was rebounding across the continent — often due to travel, summer holidays and parties.While Italy registered 845 new cases on Thursday, its highest daily tally since May, France reported 4,700 fresh infections — a massive increase on the previous day. Spain’s daily increases topped even those of France, and Germany was concerned about its own resurgence.
Despite the rise in cases, a top World Health Organization official said additional lockdowns should not be necessary. “With the basic nationwide and additional targeted measures, we are in a much better position to stamp out these localized virus flare-ups,” the head of the WHO’s European branch, Hans Kluge, told reporters.
Latin America and the Caribbean recorded nearly 6.5 million infections and 250,969 deaths by 2200 GMT Thursday.
Brazil is the region’s worst-affected country with 3.5 million cases and more than 112,000 deaths.The United States — where 174,000 people have died — continues to bear the brunt in health terms and is suffering grim economic fallout.
The number of Americans filing claims for joblessness each week topped one million again, US officials said on Thursday, an increase on the previous week’s figures.Germany will need to take on yet more debt in 2021 to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus on the economy, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said.
