Health officials have recorded more than 20mn cases of the coronavirus across Europe, according to an AFP tally based on official sources at 1315 GMT yesterday.
The highly-contagious coronavirus causes the Covid-19 respiratory disease.
Europe is the worst affected region for the disease, which was first detected on the continent at the beginning of the year.
Almost 40% of the new cases detected over the last seven days worldwide were in Europe, but the rate of infection appears to be stabilising, with a 2% drop in cases compared with the previous week.
Behind Europe, the United States and Canada has 15.4mn cases, and Latin America 13.6mn.
To date, there have been 67mn cases recorded across the world since the outbreak began at the end of 2019.
Germany’s eastern state of Saxony will impose drastic measures from Monday, shuttering schools, kindergartens and most shops to curb transmission, after it became the worst-hit coronavirus hotspot in the country.
“The situation in hospitals are not only tense, but extremely dangerous,” Saxony state premier Michael Kretschmer said yesterday, warning that in some hospitals, intensive care wards were already full.
The state has reported an incidence rate of 319 cases per 100,000 people in the last seven days – more than twice that of the national average at 147.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has repeatedly said that numbers need to be brought down to 50 per 100,000 people in order for officials to effectively carry out their trace and isolate strategy.
Russia’s second city Saint Petersburg registered a record number of coronavirus deaths yesterday as authorities warned of an imminent lockdown and shuttered restaurants for the New Year’s holidays.
Saint Petersburg – one of Russia’s most popular tourist destinations – is struggling with a major health crisis, with hospitals overwhelmed with coronavirus patients but residents flouting social distancing and other measures.
Saint Petersburg, Russia’s worst-hit city after Moscow, recorded 3,734 new cases and 86 new coronavirus deaths yesterday, a record since the start of the pandemic.
By comparison, Moscow, the outbreak’s epicentre, registered 5,232 new cases and 71 new fatalities.
On Monday, Saint Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov warned that the city was close to a formal lockdown as local hospitals were nearing full capacity.
“A time has come for Saint Petersburg when very little separates us from a full lockdown,” Beglov said.
Iceland said yesterday that it would relax some measures aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus after seeing a slight fall in new infections.
Iceland has an infection incidence of 46.1 per 100,000 on a two-week average.
Only 28 people have died with the virus in Iceland, out of 5,506 infections in total.
The easing of measures will take effect tomorrow and remain in force until January 12.
Azerbaijan will impose a strict lockdown in all of its major cities for just over a month from December 14 to limit the spread of Covid-19, the government’s emergency coronavirus department said yesterday.
Azerbaijan already has a raft of restrictions in place but cases have roughly doubled in the past three to four weeks.
Those restrictions were extended until the end of January, but for the enhanced lockdown period, all non-essential shops will also be closed.
“Due to the growth in the number of sick people in the country’s big cities, a strict quarantine regime will be introduced from December 14 until January 18 next year,” the coronavirus department said in a statement.
In Spain, four lions at Barcelona Zoo have tested positive for Covid-19, veterinary authorities said yesterday, in only the second known case in which large felines have contracted coronavirus.
Three females named Zala, Nima and Run Run, and Kiumbe, a male, were tested after keepers noticed they showed slight symptoms of coronavirus.
Two staff at the zoo also tested positive for coronavirus, the authorities said, after the outbreak was first detected last month.
The authorities are investigating how the lions became infected.
Keepers carried out PCR tests on the lions in the same way as humans are tested as the animals are accustomed to contact with the zoo staff.
The Veterinary Service of Barcelona contacted colleagues at the Bronx Zoo in New York, where four tigers and three lions tested positive for Covid-19 in April.
It is the only other zoo where large felines are known to have contracted coronavirus.
All recovered.