Coronavirus live news: France reports 25,086 new infections; Belgium closes cafes and restaurants for four weeks | World news

The war of words between Juventus and Portugal footballer Cristiano Ronaldo and the Italian government continues after he returned to the country having tested positive for coronavirus.

Belgium will close all cafes and restaurants for four weeks on Monday as it seeks to tackle a sharp rise in coronavirus cases.

The move was announced by deputy prime minister Georges Gilkinet following a meeting of the Belgian government’s crisis unit.

The Brussels city region already imposed similar restrictions last week but Friday’s announcement extends them nationwide.

Gilkinet said the decision to close cafes and restaurants – deemed high-risk venues for spreading the virus – was taken to try to head off another full lockdown like the one Belgium enforced earlier in the year.

He warned “the situation is serious from a health point of view”, and we must “prevent our healthcare system from becoming saturated”.

“Our hospitals are clogged,” he added.

“The figures are as high as they were in March when we decided on a lockdown, that’s what we absolutely want to avoid”.

Belgium has recorded 191,959 covid cases and 10,327 deaths as of Friday.

As a result of a surge in infections in September, the rate of hospitalisations has accelerated in recent days, particularly in Brussels and Belgium’s French-speaking southern provinces.

The French health ministry reported 25,086 new confirmed cases in 24 hours on Friday, after reporting a record 30,621 on Thursday.

It also reported that 122 people had died from infection in hospitals in the past 24 hours, compared with 88 on Thursday. Including deaths in retirement homes, which are often reported in multi-day batches, the death toll increased by 178 on Friday.

The cumulative total number of infections since the start of the year now stands at 834,770, the cumulative number of dead at 33,303.

Intensive care units in various European cities could reach maximum capacity in the coming weeks, the World Health Organization has warned.

In response to the second surge, the Czech Republic has shut schools and is building a field hospital, Poland has limited restaurant hours and closed gyms and schools, and France is planning a 9pm curfew in Paris and other big cities.

Europe is not alone in seeing a resurgence, the Associated Press reports. In theUS, new cases per day are on the rise in 44 states, and deaths per day are climbing in 30. Bertrand Levrat, the head of Switzerland’s biggest hospital complex, told the news agency:

If we don’t get a handle on this, we run the risk of getting into a situation that’s harder to control. We are really at a turning point: things can go both ways.

But, while officials are sounding the alarm on rising cases, they are also wary of imposing the stricter nationwide lockdowns that devastated their economies this spring. Instead, they are trying more targeted restrictions.

France is deploying 12,000 extra police to enforce its new curfew; Saturday night will be the first time establishments will be forced to close at 9pm. Restaurants, cinemas and theatres are trying to figure out how can survive the forced early closures.

The World Health Organization said on Friday it has had very good dialogue with developers of a second Russian vaccine candidate against Covid-19. Its chief scientist, Soumya Swaminathan, said:

We will only be able to have a position on a vaccine when we see results of the phase 3 clinical trials.

Greece recorded 508 new confirmed infections on Friday, topping the 500 daily mark for the first time, health authorities said, as they urged compliance with mask wearing and social distancing.

Of the 508 new cases, 227 were recorded in the Athens metropolitan area and 63 in Thessaloniki, the country’s second largest city. There were eight deaths from the disease. The epidemiologist Gikas Magiorkinis told Reuters:

For the first time we went over 500 daily diagnoses of coronavirus. The drop in temperatures may tilt the balance, intensifying the epidemiological trend.

Earlier, the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, told reporters after an EU leaders’ summit in Brussels that Greece was still among the countries faring better in Europe.

But this may change at any moment if we do not comply with the recommended measures.

The deputy civil protection minister, Nikos Hardalias, said the country was still in a stable situation, but “this stability is especially fragile”. He said: “All that is happening in Europe shows that we should not be complacent.”

Malta has stopped passengers disembarking from the MSC Grandiosa cruise ship over a suspected case, its tourism minister, Julia Farrugia Portelli, has said. Although the ship was let into Valletta harbour, it was not allowed to disembark passengers.

The ship, which has been cruising around the central Mediterranean, left port after taking in supplies. There was no immediate comment from MSC Cruises, which operates the vessel.

Cruise ships were home to the some of the earliest clusters as the pandemic spread globally early this year and the cruise industry has been devastated by the fallout.

Malta started allowing cruise ships back in its harbour in July on condition that passengers stay in a bubble, meaning they had to stay together and not mingle with locals.

Italy has registered 10,010 new infections in 24 hours, the health ministry has said. It is the highest daily tally since the start of the country’s outbreak, and up 13% from the previous high of 8,804 posted the day before.

The ministry also reported 55 Covid-related deaths, down from 83 the day before and far fewer than at the height of the pandemic in Italy in March and April, when a daily peak of more than 900 fatalities was reached.

The number of people in intensive care with the virus has risen steadily. It stood at 638 on Friday, up from 586 on Thursday, and compared with a low of around 40 in the second half of July.

Italy was the first country in Europe to be heavily affected and has the second-highest death toll in the continent after Britain, with 36,427 fatalities since the outbreak flared in February, according to official figures.

The resurgent pandemic disrupted the EU leaders’ summit, only their third face-to-face meeting since it began, with the EU’s chief executive and Finland’s prime minister dropping out after coming near people who later tested positive.

An EU diplomat said this week’s meeting was likely to be “the last physical gathering of EU leaders for a while” as the second wave brings record daily infections and forces governments to restrict lives again.

Europe’s economy is in its worst ever recession after spring lockdowns hit travel and tourism. With leaders still struggling to agree a common approach to tackling the pandemic, businesses are again fretting about their futures.

The European commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, abruptly left the two-day summit less than an hour after it started on Thursday, followed by the Finnish premier, Sanna Marin, on Friday.

The Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, was not present either as he was self-isolating in Warsaw even before the talks, at which leaders wore face masks.

The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, had said on arriving in Brussels that the summit “should be held as a video conference … instead of meeting physically”. Leaders agreed to hold video calls to coordinate measures to combat the pandemic among the bloc’s 27 countries.

Bosnia’s new Covid-19 infections hit a record high for the third day in a row, with 621 cases on Friday, and authorities warned the healthcare system could collapse if the trend continues.

The country of around 3.3 million people has so far recorded 32,845 cases of the coronavirus and 980 deaths. Currently there are 7,262 active cases – 1,512 more than a week ago.

A significant rise has been recorded in the capital, Sarajevo, with 248 new cases in the past two days.

The head of the Sarajevo University Clinical Centre (KCUS), where the main regional Covid centre is based, warned about strains on the health system and medical staff.

“The situation becomes very serious … the number of infected people rises every day,” said Sebija Izetbegović. “If the number of people infected with Covid-19 gets very high, it is certain that the health system may collapse.”

Health authorities across the Balkan country also warned their hospitals were close to reaching capacity.

Belgium is expected to tighten measures as infections soar and hospitals risk running out of beds.

Health experts said stricter measures were due. “We are beating records day after day,” virologist Yves Van Laethem told a news conference.

The measures are expected to include reducing to just one the number of people Belgians can see at close proximity outside their homes, and enforcing work from home for most employees.

Belgium could also follow neighbours France in imposing a night-time curfew and reduce opening hours for bars and restaurants, or even close them as the Netherlands has done.

It is also expected to introduce a colour-coded “barometer”, with rules according to whether a region is green, orange or red.

Five weeks after reopening, Belgian universities will have to switch mostly to online teaching from Monday, although schools will remain open for now.

The nation of 11 million people has Europe’s second highest infection rate per capita after the Czech Republic. New infections are doubling every week, hitting a peak of 8,500 on Monday and probably more than 10,000 on Tuesday.

In Brussels, 20% of tests turn out positive.

The number of patients in intensive care units (ICUs) has doubled over 11 days to 327 on Thursday.

Belgium’s maximum capacity of 2,000 ICU beds might be fully exhausted by mid-November at the current rate of increasing infections, health authorities have said. Covid-19 has claimed 10,283 lives in Belgium; one of the highest per capita fatality rates in the world.

Slovakia reported more than 2,000 new daily cases for the first time on Friday, meaning the country now has one of the highest infection rates in Europe.

The central European country was among the most successful at containing the virus during the pandemic’s first wave in the spring. But, like the rest of Europe, it is facing a stronger second wave.

The health ministry recorded 2,075 new cases on Thursday to bring the total in the country to 26,300 since March. Of those, 19,047 are considered active, a threefold increase in October alone, while 7,182 have recovered and 71 people have died.

Slovakia has reported 244 cases per 100,000 people over the last 14 days, the ninth highest rate in Europe, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), and compared with 70 at the end of September.

France will introduce rapid tests at airports this month, the country’s transport minister has said, in a boost for Air France-KLM and other airlines pushing for an easing of travel restrictions and quarantines. “We’ll put that in place by the end of October,” Jean-Baptiste Djebbari said on CNews television.

Airlines represented by their global industry body IATA are pushing for rapid antigen tests to be administered to all departing international passengers at airports. Such tests are slightly less accurate than lab-based PCR alternatives but allow for last-minute screening.

The measures will only become effective in reviving collapsed air traffic when the scheme is widely used and accepted by governments as a substitute for long quarantine requirements that deter travel.

France will initially offer the tests for passengers bound for destinations including the US and Italy, Djebbari said, as well as arrivals from countries on its coronavirus red list where infection rates are high.

Testing may begin as soon as next week at Paris Roissy Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports, the newspaper La Tribune reported.

The Netherlands recorded 7,984 new infections in 24 hours, the latest data from the National Institute for Public Health (RIVM) shows. It is the nation’s worst day for new cases since the start of its epidemic.

Here are the key developments from the last few hours:

• The Czech Republic recorded 9,721 new infections on Thursday, the second consecutive day it posted its worst daily figures. The country of 10.7 million has registered the biggest surge of new cases in Europe.
• The UK foreign secretary denounced what he said was a Russian effort to “disrupt the attempts to find a safe vaccine”. Dominic Raab described claims that Moscow was attempting to sow seeds of confusion about the vaccine being developed in the UK as “very serious”.
• Schools in Italy’s Campania region have closed less than a month after reopening. Amid a rapid rise in cases, authorities said schools would remain closed until the end of October.
• Italy has two weeks to stop the rising rate of transmission, a senior Italian virologist has said. If not, it risks following in the footsteps of European neighbours where exponential spreads have ushered back harsh restrictions, according to Massimo Galli.
• Gilead Sciences has questioned the findings of a World Health Organization (WHO) study that concluded that Gilead’s drug remdesivir does not help patients who have been admitted to hospital.
• Switzerland suffered its worst day for infections again on Friday, having posted its previous worst figure the day before. There have been a total of 74,422 confirmed cases in Switzerland and the neighbouring principality Liechtenstein.
• A court suspended a curfew on Berlin’s bars and restaurants. It joined others in Germany in overturning government-imposed measures meant to contain the further spread of the virus.
• Global deaths near 1.1m and US cases near 8m. The global death toll is nearing 1.1m – it is likely to pass this milestone within the next 24 hours. The current figure on the Johns Hopkins University tracker is 1,096,833, and more than 5,000 new deaths are being reported daily worldwide.
• London prepares for “tier 2” lockdown. The English capital is bracing for tougher restrictions from Saturday, banning separate households from mixing indoors, including in pubs and restaurants.
• The UK government’s flagship policy for tackling the coronavirus in England descended into chaos after mayors and MPs from the north-west emphatically rejected being moved into the highest lockdown level and accused ministers of treating the region with contempt.