European Coronavirus News from The UK, France, Italy and Portugal at a Glance

By Tony Winterburn • Published: 14 Aug 2020 • 21:43

‘Circuit break’ could cut the UK COVID rates by up to 49%

Number of hospitalisations in Malaga falls. Image: Wikipedia

The Daily coronavirus news from around Europe.

The UK

A total of 1,441 new cases were recorded over the past 24 hours in the UK, more than four times the figure seen at the start of July.The number is also a sizeable increase on the number recorded in the middle of the week – where 1,009 cases were recorded on Wednesday, while 1,129 were recorded on Thursday. On Friday, there were a further 11 coronavirus deaths in the UK – a figure that now refers to the number of people who have had a positive test result and died within 28 days. The total now stands at 41,358 deaths.

France

France records another new post-lockdown record rise in cases, with 2,846 new infections. The French health ministry reported 2,846 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours on Friday, setting a new post-lockdown daily high for the third day in a row and taking the country’s cumulative total of cases to 212,211.

The seven-day moving average of new infections, which averages out weekly data reporting irregularities, increased to 2,041, doubling over the last two weeks, and going beyond the 2,000 threshold for the first time since 20 April. Thousands of Brits stuck in France have grid-locked ports and railway stations in a bid to return home after the UK announced quarantine on all arrivals from France starting from tomorrow at 04.00 am Saturday.

Italy

There has been a slight rise in cases this month, with an average of 350 new infections a day. The government says that this is mostly due to people returning from their overseas holidays.

The Commander of Rome’s Police Patrols Marco Di Giovanni says Italians have mostly been compliant with the anti-COVID-19 measures such as wearing masks, social distancing and washing hands. “There has been a good response from residents, from the first phase when everyone had to make important sacrifices, until now. Even police must respect these rules.”

Portugal

Portugal today registered six more deaths from COVID-19 and 325 new cases of infection compared to Wednesday, that was according to the daily bulletin of the Directorate-General for Health (DGS).

According to the DGS bulletin on the epidemiological situation, since the beginning of the pandemic until today, there have been 53,548 confirmed cases of infection and 1,770 deaths. The Lisbon and Tagus Valley region today total 27,645 cases of COVID-19, 204 more than the previous day, which represents 52% of the cases.

In percentage terms, in the last 24 hours, the increase in the number of confirmed cases was 0.6% (from 53,223 to 53,548) and the death toll represented 0.3% (from 1,764 to 1,770).