London, Paris adopt restrictive measures amid fresh surge in coronavirus cases
Amid fresh surge in coronavirus cases across Europe, London and Paris, two of the Europe's biggest capitals, have taken restrictive measures to combat the spread of the contagious virus.
Paris imposed overnight curfews while London considered banning people from meeting indoors to combat the spread of coronavirus, reports CNN.
Announcing the decision, France's President Emmanuel Macron said the capital and the cities of Aix-Marseille, Grenoble, Montpellier, Toulouse, Saint Etienne, Lille, Rouen and Lyon will face a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew starting at midnight on Friday.
"The aim is to reduce private contacts, which are the most dangerous contacts," Macron said Wednesday.
Violating the nighttime curfew will carry a fine of 135 euros (about $160) for a first offense, and 1500 euros ($1,760) if the offense is repeated.
France reported 22,591 new cases and 95 deaths on Wednesday, raising its total to 779,063 cases and 33,037 deaths.
On the other hand, London will move to the Tier 2 "high alert" level of coronavirus restrictions on Saturday, Mayor Sadiq Khan announced in a statement posted on Twitter on Thursday.
It implies Londoners will be banned from mixing with other households indoors in any setting, including in pubs and restaurants. They should also avoid using public transport where possible.
"It is clear that the virus is now spreading rapidly in every part of our city, and hospital and ICU admissions are steadily rising," he said in the statement.
He said it was "better to act earlier than to act too late," adding: "I am not willing to put Londoners' lives at risk."
He also called for greater action on a national scale and reaffirmed his support for a "circuit breaker" lockdown.
A preprint paper written by scientific advisers to the UK government claims that thousands of coronavirus deaths could be averted before the end of the year if a two-week circuit-breaker lockdown were to be imposed soon.
The paper suggests it could reduce deaths between now and the end of the year by up to 49%, depending on the growth rate of the virus. But in a statement released Wednesday, the authors cautioned that, "it is not correct to say that we are forecasting specific numbers of lives that would be saved; the worst-case scenarios would never be allowed to continue without intervention."