France and Germany have announced they will be imposing stricter lockdown protocols to combat the rising number of coronavirus cases.
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ABC News reports France announced a nationwide lockdown for the second time to combat the increased number of cases throughout the country and will start from midnight Thursday until December 1. Schools will remain open despite the lockdown/
German officials stated a four-week lockdown will take place. This includes shutting down restaurants, movie theatres, bars, and other public spaces to cut down the infection rate after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the countries are “deep in the second wave.”
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Several other countries such as Britain, Norway, Switzerland, and Iceland have a total number of 1.1 million cases over the past week and Leyer says the cases will continue to rise within the next two to three weeks. Germany’s disease control agency said in a report that they had a record 14,964 new confirmed cases within the past day.
Europe currently has more than 250,000 coronavirus-related deaths since the outbreak. Chancellor Angela Merkel said she urged governors to agree on a partial lockdown to prevent further spread of the virus which includes limiting unnecessary travel.
“We can say that our health system can cope with the challenge today. But if the pace of infections continues like this, then we’ll reach the limits of what the health system can manage within weeks.”