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Coronavirus Updates: Germany, France Impose New Coronavirus Lockdown Measures
By
Sydney Pereira
Published Oct 28, 2020
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Matthias Schrader/AP/Shutterstock
By
Sydney Pereira
Published Oct 28, 2020
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This is our daily update of breaking COVID-19 news for Wednesday, October 28th, 2020. Previous daily updates can be found here, and up-to-date statistics are here.
New York City is in Phase 4 of reopening now, which includes zoos, botanical gardens, museums, and gyms. Certain parts of Brooklyn and Queens are under a zoned shutdown. A look at preparing for the spread of coronavirus is here, and if you have lingering questions about the virus, here is our regularly updated coronavirus FAQ. Here are some local and state hotlines for more information: NYC: 311; NY State Hotline: 888-364-3065; NJ State Hotline: 800-222-1222.
Here's the latest:
- New Jersey's Largest City Goes On Partial Lockdown Due To COVID Outbreak
- NYC Retail Businesses Will Be Allowed To Expand Outside For New Open Storefronts Program
- Developing An Effective COVID-19 Vaccine Is One Thing. Getting It To Enough People Is Another
3:26 p.m.: Germany and France are set to impose new lockdown restrictions to tamp down on gathering to mitigate the spread of coronavirus, surging across the two European countries.
Germany will enter a second lockdown on Monday as COVID-19 cases surge across Europe. The Associated Press reports that the tightened restrictions are expected to be in place until the end of November.
Restaurants, bars, and clubs will close, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday. Theaters and gyms are among other non-essential businesses required to close until the end of November.
Under Merkel's restrictions, groups of just 10 people, or two households, would be permitted in public, and schools, retail, and hair salons will be allowed to remain open. Merkel said the country doesn't know where three-quarters of its COVID infections originate.
Germany's public health agency, the Robert Koch Institute, shows Germany has seen another 73,000 coronavirus cases in the past seven days. Its total case-count is about 450,000 as of Tuesday. COVID-19 intensive care unit patients have more than doubled in the past two weeks, from 618 to 1,470, according to the institute.
In France, confirmed COVID-19 cases rose by more than 33,000 on Tuesday, the NY Times coronavirus tracker shows. The cases have risen 120% in the past two weeks.
France's President Emmanuel Macron announced in a television address that new restrictive lockdown measures would go into place Thursday evening and into Friday morning and last until at least mid-December. Schools for young children will not close, as it would be too damaging particularly for low-income families, Macron said in his remarks on Wednesday.
Detailed information on what businesses must close will be announced Thursday, he added. Macron emphasized remote work is preferred, but "the economy must not come to a halt." Construction and public services, for instance, will remain open.
Restrictions will be reviewed every two weeks, Macron said.
In NYC, the seven-day average of new coronavirus cases rose to 552, above the 550 threshold, which the city surpassed Monday.
The testing positivity rate on a seven-day rolling average was 1.75%, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced during a press briefing on Wednesday.
Hospitalizations for suspected coronavirus patients were 105, below the 200-person threshold. About 23% of those patients were confirmed to have coronavirus.
"We have three indicators and what we're most concerned about is when we see them all move in unison," de Blasio told reporters. "The big point here is we are making some progress fighting back this second wave."
"The concern about us being a few weeks behind Europe, I think that was when we didn't have all these precautions in place," de Blasio said.
Dr. Jay Varma, de Blasio's senior public health advisor, added: "We have done things that Europe hasn't done. Europe did have a lot of reopenings, and I think the issue of COVID fatigue probably hit there stronger."
New York has a set of micro-cluster zones in parts of Brooklyn and Queens, where red, orange, and yellow zones each have a set of restrictions on businesses and schools. Red zones are where the most restrictive measures in place, with schools required to remain remote and non-essential businesses required to close.
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Sydney Pereira
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