Covid-19: restrictions multiply across Europe

Ireland becomes this Wednesday, October 21, in the evening, the first territory to reconfine its population in Europe, hit by the second wave and forced to increase the restrictions to counter Covid-19.

Wales will follow at the end of the week.

Read also: Covid-19: a virus attacking the world

Le Figaro

takes stock of the latest developments in the Covid-19 pandemic around the world.

• 1,119,590 dead worldwide

The new coronavirus pandemic has killed at least 1,119,590 worldwide since the WHO office in China reported the onset of the disease at the end of December, according to a latest report established by AFP.

More than 40,416,800 cases of infection have been officially diagnosed.

The United States is the most affected country in terms of both deaths and cases, with 220,134 deaths, followed by Brazil (154,176 deaths), India (115,197), Mexico (86,338) and the United Kingdom ( 43.726).

• More and more patients in intensive care

In France, the tide is still rising in hospitals with 278 new intensive care admissions on Tuesday.

The 2,000 beds mark in these services was crossed the day before.

The situation is particularly tense in Île-de-France, which concentrates 661 patients in intensive care.

The number of deaths in the past 24 hours has risen to 163, bringing the total since the start of the epidemic to 33,885, including 22,873 in hospitals.

This is a level that had not been seen since the month of May.

Read also: Covid: is the number of deaths overestimated in France?

• Ireland and Wales reconfine

Ireland and Wales will become the first territories in Europe to reconfine their population in the face of the second wave of the new coronavirus.

The reconfinement will take effect in Ireland on Wednesday at midnight for six weeks, with schools nonetheless remaining open.

All non-essential businesses will have to close, bars and restaurants will only be able to serve take-out food.

Wales will be subject to a two-week lockdown from Friday, the hardest measure introduced in the United Kingdom since the first wave of Covid-19 in the spring.

• Restrictions are on the rise in Europe

As Lombardy, the wealthy region of northern

most affected by the pandemic, and Campania, the region of Naples, prepare to institute a nighttime curfew on Thursday and Friday, Piedmont announced on Tuesday. the closing of shopping centers on Saturday and Sunday.

In

, a curfew also comes into force on Tuesday, the two million inhabitants no longer having the right to go out between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.

In

, Burgos joined the increasingly long list of partially cordoned off municipalities overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday.

The region of Navarre will suffer the same fate from Thursday.

The government has said it is ready to discuss the imposition of a curfew with the opposition.

• Hungary eases restrictions

After a strict state of emergency in the spring, Viktor Orban's government gave up ballast in the face of the second wave, letting life unfold almost normally in the country, which has also closed its borders.

Relatively spared at the start of the year, Hungary now has one of the highest death rates in the European Union and contaminations are increasing, like the Minister of Justice, Judit Varga, who tested positive Tuesday evening.

• On the vaccine front

Several studies published on Tuesday did not make it possible to decide on the effectiveness of tocilizumab, a drug that was hoped to fight the inflammatory phenomenon responsible for the most serious cases of Covid-19 and reduce mortality.

British researchers have announced that they intend to infect volunteers aged 18 to 30 with the new coronavirus to advance research, in particular with a view to the development of a vaccine.

For its part, China announced that it had tested vaccines on 60,000 people in several countries, ensuring that no subject had experienced adverse effects.