Fears rose Thursday that Europe is running out of time to control a resurgence of the coronavirus as infections hit record daily highs in Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy and Poland.
BERLIN — Fears rose Thursday that Europe is running out of time to control a resurgence of the coronavirus as infections hit record daily highs in Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy and Poland. France slapped a 9 p.m. curfew on many of its biggest cities and Londoners faced new travel restrictions as governments imposed increasingly tough measures. Newly confirmed cases have surged across Europe over recent weeks as the fall kicks in, prompting authorities to bring back measures that had been relaxed over the summer. The Czech Republic, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, France and Britain are among the countries causing particular concern. The head of the World Health Organization’s Europe office urged governments to be “uncompromising” in controlling the virus. He said most of the spread is happening in homes, indoor spaces and communities not complying with protection measures. “These measures are meant to keep us all ahead of the curve and to flatten its course,” Dr. Hans Kluge said, while wearing a mask. “It is therefore up to us to accept them while they are still relatively easy to follow instead of following the path of severity.” European nations have seen nearly 230,000 confirmed deaths in total from the virus — more than the nearly 217,000 deaths reported so far in the United States, according to figures tallied by Johns Hopkins University that experts agree understate the true toll of the pandemic. Europe’s financial markets fell sharply Thursday on concerns that the new restrictions on swaths of the region’s economy are already ending the nascent recovery from its sharpest recession in modern history. Major stock indexes were well over 2% lower in Europe. While Germany, the European Union’s most populous nation, is still in comparatively good shape, alarm bells are ringing there too. The national disease control center reported over 6,600 new cases Thursday — exceeding the previous daily record set in late March, though testing has expanded greatly since then.
