Europe surpassed 100,000 daily reported COVID-19 cases for the first time on Thursday as many countries face a new surge in infections. As Russia and United Kingdom saw no respite in the mounting number of infections every day in the past five days, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control added ten more countries to its "red list" on its coronavirus map, meaning those countries have crossed the threshold of 120 infections per 100,000 people in the past two weeks. Cases throughout Europe have been steadily rising over the past week even as new infections in worst-affected countries such as India and Brazil have shown signs of slowing down, Reuters reported. The epicenter of the outbreak in the European region has moved to the United Kingdom, Russia, Spain, and France which have reported at least over 10,000 cases each in the last three days. Italy, Germany, and France all reported record single-day rises in new coronavirus cases over the past week, forcing them to unveil new restrictions. To curb the spread, Paris has been declared a "Maximum Alert Zone," meaning all bars are now closed, restaurants are open with strict conditions. In Italy, wearing masks is now mandatory in all indoor and outdoor spaces, and the government is attempting to combat the rise in cases by instituting local lockdowns to avoid closing businesses and schools nationwide again. "The state can't ask citizens to wear masks in their own homes," Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said at a press conference this week. "But we have a strong recommendation for all citizens: Even in our families we have to be careful." German Health Minister Jens Spahn said that "the numbers are a worrying jump" as the country recorded over 4,000 daily infections on Wednesday. "At the moment it's mainly young people getting infected, because they want to party, want to travel and because they feel invulnerable, but they are not," he said. — Agencies
