Britain'S Disguised "Second Blockade" European Epidemic Tsunami Increases By 44% In A Week

12:00 noon on October 20 is the deadline given by the British government to Manchester City Government. If the local government does not agree to raise the level of epidemic prevention, it will take unilateral measures against the city. But as of the press release, neither side has announced the progress.

In the past week, the confrontation between the prime minister's office and local governments over the hierarchical management of the epidemic and the compensation policy has escalated. The Manchester City Government has tried to resist the implementation of the highest level restrictions on the city of 3 million people unless it meets its large subsidy requirements.

Outside England, it was a different story. Wales, which has local autonomy, announced a two-week ban from 6 p.m. on Friday, closing schools, shops, bars and hotels, closing borders and banning unnecessary travel. Of the four regions in the UK, the incidence of covid-19 in Wales is the lowest. In addition to England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have all announced measures similar to those imposed during the spring outbreak.

Even Ireland, which has the only land border with Britain, announced the resumption of its blockade policy on the evening of October 19. In a televised speech, Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin asked people across the country to "stay at home" no more than five kilometers from home, even if they need to leave home; meanwhile, all unnecessary shops will be closed and bars and restaurants will be limited to takeout. Only schools remain open. The closure policy, which takes effect from midnight on Wednesday, will last for up to six weeks.

The real winter is not yet here. A bad sign is that Lombardy, the focus of Italy's outbreak this spring, is preparing for a surge in hospital admissions, and a curfew will be imposed from the 22nd.

Who emergency director Mike In the past week, about half of the 48 countries in the European region have seen an increase of 50% in new crown cases. The average age of patients is much lower than that at the first round peak. Moreover, due to improved treatment, physical alienation and wearing masks, infected people may be exposed to lower doses of virus and have fewer severe symptoms. One of the main reasons for his low infection rate is that there is no self isolation measure.

The autonomous region gets rid of the central government's blockade

Mark drakeford, chief minister of Wales, said that while Wales had the lowest number of confirmed cases in the UK, severe measures were needed to prevent more deaths from the new coronavirus and prevent hospitals from being overloaded.

He said it was not expected that the number of cases would decline in the short term, and that the government's goal was to strengthen the virus testing, tracking and protection system to prepare for temporary hospitals during this period.

At present, of the four areas in Britain, only England has not implemented blocking closure measures. Although British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly made it clear that he does not want to return to the national closure policy, the practice of Wales has undoubtedly promoted the UK to enter the "total blockade" in disguise. By the end of this week, a third of the population in the UK will be living again under severe restrictions.

Last Wednesday, the British government announced a new three-level warning system. The city of Liverpool was placed at the highest level on the same day, Lancashire was on top alert on Friday, and London and its surrounding areas were placed on second alert. Because of the rapid rise in infection rates, areas on alert from level 2 to level 3 include South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Nottingham County, northeast England and tisside.

Whether the Greater Manchester area agrees or not, the Johnson administration is expected to declare the area on level three alert.

The opposition Labour Party has always supported the conservative government's anti epidemic policy, but at present it is more inclined to propose a temporary "circuit breaker" blockade across the UK.

The absence of a nationwide short-term "circuit breaker" blockade could cost the British economy 110 billion pounds, labour shadow minister Anneliese Dodds said in the house of Commons on Tuesday. She asked whether the chancellor of the exchequer, Rishi sunak, knew what it would cost to avoid doing so?

The lower the rate of infection he wants, the lower the rate of the national blockade that he does not want to cause. Earlier, a spokesman for the prime minister also told reporters that the British government wanted to avoid the blockade as much as possible. "Our position is that, wherever possible, we want targeted local action rather than a full blockade," he said. "This will ensure that the economy remains open in places with low infection rates and avoid impacts on people's lives and livelihoods."

But it is clear that the Welsh government has demonstrated that it does not agree with Downing Street's view.

Figures released by the National Bureau of statistics on the 20th confirmed that the death toll of the new crown is still rising rapidly.

In the week ending September 4, the death toll was only 78. In the weeks since then, the death toll has risen from 99 to 139, 215, 321, and by the week ending October 9, the death toll has soared to 438. So far, 59079 people have died in covid-19, with Britain's new crown death toll accounting for one fifth of the whole of Europe.

Official data also show that since the outbreak in the UK, the number of deaths from other diseases other than the new coronavirus has risen sharply. From March to September this year, the death toll of diabetes mellitus increased by 86%, prostate cancer by 53%, Parkinson's disease by 79%, breast cancer by 47% and colorectal cancer by 46%.

The epidemic situation continues to worsen, and the deficit in the euro zone has increased tenfold

Different from the first wave of the epidemic, in some European countries, worried about the deterioration of the epidemic situation, some local governments took the initiative to demand the implementation of a strict blockade policy before the central government made up its mind.

Since the 20th, residents of bechtesgaden, Bavaria, are not allowed to leave their homes without proper reasons, making it the first area in Germany to fall back into blockade since April. Schools, restaurants, bars, theaters, gymnasiums, cinemas and hotels will be closed for two weeks at the same time.

Lombardy, the hardest hit area of Italy's first wave of epidemic, also asked the central government for further restrictions to curb the surge in infection rates.

Of the 423500 confirmed cases of new crowns in Italy since the outbreak in February, 128400 were from Lombardy.

Lombardy proposed that the government should stop unnecessary economic activities and residents' going out between 11:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. from October 22, and close all large shops on Saturdays and Sundays.

Belgium, the political center of Europe, also began a nationwide curfew on the 19th. All bars and restaurants were closed for four weeks. Alcohol sales were banned after 8 p.m. and a curfew was imposed between midnight and 5 a.m.

Belgium's health minister, Frank vandenbrucke, warned that Belgium was losing control of the second wave of the new coronavirus pandemic and was almost inundated by an infected "tsunami.". He described the situation in the French speaking south of the country in Wallon and the capital, Brussels, as the worst and most dangerous in Europe as a whole.

According to the latest data from the European Center for Disease Control and prevention, Belgium has recorded 605 infections per 100000 people in the past 14 days, second only to 771 cases in Czech Republic; between October 8 and 14, the average daily number of new infections was 7388, an increase of 88% over the previous seven days; between October 11 and 17, an average of 234 cases were hospitalized every day, an increase of 96% over the previous week. Belgium's new prime minister, Alexander de croo, acknowledged that the situation in the country was more serious than before the first national blockade in March.

On Saturday, German President Frank Walter Steinmeier went into quarantine when a bodyguard of his was confirmed to be infected with the new coronavirus. Steinmeier's test results are currently negative.

The French president's wife, Gillette, was also quarantined on Monday night.

Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, last weekend called on people to stay in their homes as much as possible, "not to travel unnecessarily or to celebrate unnecessarily.".

Merkel said Germany was in the "very serious" phase of the new pandemic, which spread much faster than when it started more than half a year ago. In this case, keeping a distance and wearing a mask are not enough. "We have to go one step further. Science clearly tells us that the spread of the virus depends directly on the number of contacts and encounters each of us has She said.

She warned that the relatively relaxed summer had passed and that there were still months of difficulties ahead. How the winter epidemic situation develops will depend on "everyone's behavior" in the coming days and weeks.

It is not just these governments that are anxious. Over the past week, new crown cases have increased by 44% across Europe. According to the latest data from the European Center for Disease Control and prevention, a total of 4.8 million people have been infected with the new coronavirus and 200000 people have died in the European Economic Zone.

According to the World Health Organization (who), the number of confirmed cases and deaths in Europe has reached 7.8 million and 255000 respectively.

Affected by the outbreak of the new crown, the budget deficit of the euro zone government in this fiscal year will be as high as 1 trillion euro, equivalent to 9% of the euro area's GDP, an increase of 10 times over the same period last year. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde warned against a "cliff effect" in the economy.