French Riviera Cities Under Lockdown As New Infections Soar

PARIS (AP) — Residents of Nice in the French Riviera will be denied their strolls along the beach on a sunny weekend, under a temporary local lockdown imposed to curb soaring COVID-19 infections.

Starting on Friday evening, Nice and the surrounding coastal area will be under weekend lockdowns for at least two weeks, in addition to a national 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew. The northern port of Dunkirk is under similar restrictions.

In both places, numbers of infections have spiked and hospitals are overwhelmed, with some patients being transferred to other French regions.

Nice mayor Christian Estrosi announced on Friday a ban on the beaches and the famous Promenade des Anglais esplanade, where lots of people usually go for a seaside stroll, to ensure the restrictions are fully respected.

“We absolutely need to avoid too big gatherings, as the weekend is expected to be summer-like and extremely attractive ... Reason must prevail,” he said in a video message posted on social media. Only essential shops will remain open, he added.

Nice reported this week a rate of almost 800 COVID-19 infections per 100,000 people, nearly four times the national average.

Estrosi has repeatedly attributed the worsening situation in his city to the presence of “too many tourists” during end-of-year holidays, listing the UK, Scandinavia, United Arab Emirates and Russia, which have direct flights to Nice airport.

“We are now paying a very high price,” he said. Since then, France has banned almost all travelers from outside the European Union and applied restrictions to those coming from inside the bloc.

The weekend lockdown also includes nearby coastal towns of Cannes, Antibes and nearby Mediterranean beauty spots.

Residents will be able to go out only for essential needs such as food shopping, medical appointments or urgent family business. Taking exercise outside will be allowed for a maximum of one hour per day and up to 5 kilometers (3 miles) from home.

The national 6 p.m. curfew will apply during the week.
By SYLVIE CORBET

Dutch Leader Announces Tough New Nationwide Virus Lockdown

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte imposed a tough new five-week nationwide lockdown Monday, saying schools, nonessential shops, museums and gyms will close down at midnight until Jan. 19. “We have to bite through this very sour apple before things get better,” a somber Rutte said in a televised address to the nation. As Rutte spoke from his office in The Hague, protesters could be heard blowing whistles outside. “The reality is that this is is not an innocent flu as some people — like the demonstrators outside — think,” Rutte said. “But a virus that can hit everybody hard.”

From Tuesday, all non-essential shops will close until Jan. 19 along with businesses such as hair salons, museums and theaters. All schools and universities will have to switch to remote learning from Wednesday. Child daycare centers will be closed to all except children of key workers. The government also urged people to receive a maximum of two guests over the age of 13 per day, but relaxed the rule slightly for Dec. 24-26, saying three people can visit on those normally festive days. “We realize as a Cabinet how intense and drastic the measures we are taking today are,” Rutte said. “Especially so close to Christmas.” As news of the looming lockdown leaked out before Rutte’s speech, many people keen to take their last chance at Christmas shopping flocked into city centers.

Lines formed Monday afternoon at shops, museums and even pot-selling coffee shops as people tried to beat the lockdown. “It’s ridiculous at the moment,” said Bart van der Wal at the Tweede Kamer coffeeshop in a narrow alley near Amsterdam’s famous canals, where clients were lined up around the corner. “Everybody thinks the coffeeshops will be closed tomorrow.” Van der Wal said he hoped coffeeshops would be allowed to stay open for takeout “because otherwise people will deal on the street.” Bars and restaurants have been closed since mid-October, although many restaurants, cafes and coffeeshops have offered takeout sales. The partial lockdown initially slowed high infection rates, but they have been rising again in recent days. The 7-day rolling average of daily new cases in Netherlands has risen over the past two weeks from 29.22 new cases per 100,000 people on Nov. 29 to 47.47 per 100,000 people on Dec. 13.

“It’s serious. It’s very serious,” Health Minister Hugo de Jonge said Monday ahead of a Cabinet meeting to discuss action to rein in the spread of the virus. “We see the infection numbers rising sharply in recent days, we see that hospital admissions are increasing again, the pressure on the health care sector remains high.” Rutte’s speech Monday evening came a day after neighboring Germany announced similar coronavirus restrictions in an attempt to reduce its stubbornly high infection rates. Those measures also go well into January. And earlier Monday, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced that London and surrounding areas will be placed under the highest level of coronavirus restrictions from Wednesday in a bid to slow sharply rising infection rates. Under Tier 3 restrictions, the toughest level in England’s three-tier system, people can’t socialize indoors and bars, pubs and restaurants must close except for takeout. Around 10,000 people in the Netherlands are confirmed to have died of COVID-19 since the start of the outbreak. Rutte said that with vaccinations starting in the new year, 2021 would be a year “of hope, of light at the end of the tunnel.”

Switzerland-Italy Train Travel To Be Suspended Amid Pandemic

GENEVA (AP) — The Swiss national rail operator says nearly all train travel between Italy and Switzerland will be suspended indefinitely starting Thursday because of COVID-19 control measures that have been required by Italian authorities. An Italian government decree requires that train operators carry out temperature checks on passengers, who also must show they’ve tested negative for the coronavirus and carry a document from their employers authorizing travel, Swiss federal railway service spokeswoman Ottavia Masserini said. “We don’t have the resources to apply these requests,” Masserini said by phone. She said the measures amounted to “almost entirely a halt” to train travel between the two countries, though some regional trains on a single line linking Brig, Switzerland, and Domodossola, Italy, that are run by a different operator would continue their traffic.

The railway standstill could affect many cross-border workers, particularly in the health care sector, who travel from Italy to southern Switzerland every day. The halt to traffic comes amid heightened concerns about the spread of COVID-19 during Europe’s second wave. Switzerland has recorded high levels of transmission, but hasn’t enacted control measures that are as strict as in neighboring countries like France, Italy and Germany. Masserini said train travel between Switzerland and Italy is down by 50% this year amid the pandemic, which left cross-border traffic between Switzerland and those European neighbors at a virtual standstill in the spring for at least two months -- during the first wave of COVID-19 in Europe.

Four Italian Regions, Including Milan, Put Under Lockdown

ROME (AP) — Four Italian regions are being put under “red-zone” lockdown, with severe limits imposed on the circumstances under which people can leave home, Premier Giuseppe Conte announced on Wednesday night. What he called “very stringent” restrictions begin on Friday for Lombardy, Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta in the north, and for Calabria, which forms the southern toe of the Italian peninsula. The lockdown is aimed at tamping down a surge in COVID-19 infections and preventing hospitals from being overwhelmed with cases. Lasting at least two weeks, it will involve some 16.5 million of Italy’s 60 million residents and include the country’s financial capital, Milan.

Barring very few exceptions, no one will be able to leave or enter the “red zone” regions. People there must stay home, except to go to work or shop for essentials. They can also exercise near their homes and while wearing masks. After days of consultations with regional governors, Health Minister Roberto Speranza decided which regions received the “red-zone” designation. “I know that these choices will mean sacrifices and difficulties, but they are the only way to bend the (contagion) curve,” he said in a statement. “United, we can do it.” Barber shops and hair salons can stay open, although other non-essential shops in the “red zone” must close. Less severe restrictions on movement were decided for southern Sicily and Puglia, where people will be able to leave their homes, but can’t travel between towns or regions, and cafes and restaurants can only do takeout and delivery. While classrooms are open in the rest of Italy except for high schools, which must do remote instructions, in the “red zone,” only nursery, elementary and the first year of middle-school will still have in-class instruction. The latest crackdown was supposed to start on Thursday, but Conte said it will begin instead on Friday to allow time to organize. Designations will be reviewed every two weeks.

He added that previously announced nationwide measures, like museum closures and an overnight curfew, would also start a day later, on Friday, and last until Dec. 3. Conte promised that later this week his center-left government would approve more funds to aid businesses crippled by the latest closures. ___ Follow AP pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak

Nearly A Decade Late, Berlin's Brandenburg Airport Finally Opens (During A Pandemic)

Berlin (CNN) — It's nearly a decade behind schedule, 4 billion euros over budget and there's a global pandemic crippling the aviation industry. Happy Halloween to Berlin's beleaguered Brandenburg Airport, which finally opens its doors this Saturday. The massive 1,470-hectare site in the Schönefeld region southeast of Berlin aims to be the state-of-the-art transportation hub that the German capital has always lacked, and will open up connections to more long-haul destinations.

But, having been hit by so many setbacks, complaints and inefficiencies that many were calling the project "cursed," it's not been an easy journey -- nor are the omens good. Airports trade body Europe ACI warned Tuesday that nearly 200 airports across Europe risk going bust within months due to the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, with passenger traffic down 73% year on year. Berlin-Brandenburg Willy Brandt Airport (BER) is reported to have already been granted 300 million euros in state aid, without transporting a single passenger -- and while there's no airport in the world not feeling the heat right now, Berlin's new airport is no stranger to crisis.

Reunification dream Plans to build a central international airport in Berlin date back to the city's reunification era. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Germany's leaders launched into discussions about constructing a new airport, which they believed would help establish Berlin as a new world center. At the time, the city had three airports -- Tegel "Otto Lilienthal" Airport, Schönefeld Airport and Tempelhof Airport -- all of which played significant roles in Berlin's turbulent post-war history. Tempelhof, close to the center of Berlin, has since closed and become a major park. Tegel, a stopgap that became permanent, has soldiered on with overcrowded facilities and outdated amenities, and will close November 8. Schönefeld Airport -- ranked "worst in the world" by online travel agency eDreams in 2017 -- closed October 25, with much of its infrastructure incorporated into the new facility as the new Terminal 5. So why did the new airport -- officially called Berlin Brandenburg Airport Willy Brandt -- take so long to build? How did such a bold vision for Berlin's future wind up as an exercise in national humiliation?

Complications from the outset Official construction began in 2006. Efforts to privatize the project failed, leaving the airport's board in charge, under the ownership of the federal German government, the state of Brandenburg and the city of Berlin. The endeavor came with a rough cost assessment of 2.83 billion euros ($3.1 billion at today's exchange rates) and serious ambition. It would be an impressive facility -- touted as "the most modern" in Europe. But a slew of technical issues delayed progress while bloating the airport's price tag. The original cost projection became a gross underestimation. The full range of architectural, structural and technical problems came to a head in 2011, as an elaborate opening organized for June 2012 loomed.

Picture from November 2019. At the end of 2011, aviation inspectors began filing into the construction site to check alarm systems and security features. A faulty fire-protection system design first filled experts with doubts, and soon it was clear there were huge problems with major structural elements, such as escalator sizes, ceiling designs and ticket counters. The envisioned opening, a splendid display complete with an appearance from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, was canceled just weeks before and morphed into a painful embarrassment for German officials. The opening date was pushed to 2014, then 2016. A Brandenburg State Audit completed in 2016 concluded that the usability of the airport was at less than 57%. Eventually, officials decided to stop offering an expected date and put the entire project on hold until major overhauls in management and construction could be completed. Finally, as spending cruised past the 7.3 billion euros mark, the date was pushed to 2020. 'Ready for takeoff' "The most important thing for us is that we open the airport," airport boss Engelbert Luetke Daldrup tells CNN. "After very tough years of building and testing and trials, we are ready for takeoff." Terminal 1, which will welcome its first passengers on November 1, has a sleek glass facade with modern furniture and polished check-in counters. The "Magic Carpet," an installation by US artist Pae White that hangs from the ceiling of the check-in hall, adds a splash of color. The overall impression, however, is one of functionality. The walnut paneling feels like a failed attempt to add warmth and belongs more to the 1990s, when plans for the airport were first born. And with no greenery yet to soften the exterior, the building is dark and box-like. The elevators and escalators feel very narrow, suggesting that not all those design glitches have been successfully ironed out. Daldrup defends the airport against any accusations of it being already outmoded. "We had a lot of time to implement the newest technologies at this airport," he says. "The airport in so many aspects, the technical aspects, has undergone very severe infrastructural redevelopment. "We are probably the safest airport of the world because we are so strictly tested, after the disaster of 2012." But thanks to Covid-19, it'll be a while before the systems will be challenged by any substantial passenger traffic.

Operating at reduced capacity Brandenburg Airport has capacity for more than 40 million passengers over Terminal 1, Terminal 5 and the upcoming Terminal 2 (which will open in spring 2021). Thanks to the pandemic, though, it expects to only be handling about 11,000 passengers on its first day of operation on November 1, and just 24,000 a week later. "Of course Covid times are hard times, but in one or two years we will have a lot of passengers here," Daldrup tells CNN. "People will enjoy this new modern international airport." Back in May, the German flag-carrier Lufthansa, the second-largest passenger carrier in Europe, received a $10 billion state bailout. It, along with budget airline EasyJet, will be the two biggest players at BER. That role will be marked on opening day by two of the airlines' planes ceremoniously performing a parallel landing on the two runways. "We need help. All the big airlines need help," says Daldrup. However, he says the airport's owners have backed its financing for the upcoming years in order to provide the necessary assistance to cope with the crisis. "Everyone knows the capital of Germany needs a good infrastructure for international connectivity," he says. "We want more flights to the United States, to New York, to San Francisco, to Los Angeles, to Philadelphia, so many wonderful cities." Arguing that the global economy is reliant on said connectivity, he adds "the airport industry, the airports, the airlines, are the backbone of our economic recovery." Daldrup claims that the opening of the airport is "a sign of hope." Lofty ambition has always been part of the Brandenburg Airport story, so it's perhaps safer to say that it's the close of what has been a very embarrassing chapter for a nation known for efficiency. Back in 2012 -- that cataclysmic year of Mayan prophecy -- the opening was to be met with fanfare and razzmatazz. However, in 2020, the year when disaster truly struck the aviation industry, celebrations will be very muted. Daldrup confirms: "There will be no party." Source: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/brandenburg-new-berlin-airport-opens/index.html

French Doctor Warns His Country Has ‘Lost Control’ Of Virus

PARIS (AP) — A French doctor warned Monday that his country has “lost control of the epidemic,” a day after health authorities reported more than 52,000 new coronavirus cases as nations across Europe enact more sweeping restrictions to try to slow surging infection rates. Spain — the first European country to surpass 1 million confirmed COVID-19 cases — declared a state of emergency Sunday that included a nationwide overnight curfew, a cap of six people on social gatherings and possible travel bans in and out of the hardest-hit regions. The effect was clear on Barcelona’s famed Las Ramblas promenade, which was deserted Sunday night when it normally would have been teeming with people.

In two major Italian cities, people took to the streets amid a pushback from small sections of society to new restrictions. On Friday, demonstrators in Naples protested a locally imposed 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew and clashed with police. On Saturday night, far-right and neo-fascist groups led a similar protest in Rome against a curfew. Another protest is planned for Tuesday in Milan. Dr. Jean-François Delfraissy, president of the scientific council that advises the French government on the virus, said the country is in a “very difficult, even critical situation.” “There probably are more than 50,000 new cases every day. Our estimate at the Scientific Council is closer to 100,000 – twice as many,” Delfraissy told RTL radio. “Between those who aren’t tested and asymptomatic patients, we’re close to that number of cases. This means the virus is spreading extremely fast.” France declared a state of emergency earlier this month and has been imposing more and more restrictions since September to try to ease the pressure on France’s hospitals, where COVID-19 patients occupy more than half of all ICU beds.

Dr. Eric Caumes, head of the infections and tropical diseases department at Paris’ Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital, said the country needs to lock down again. “We lost control of the epidemic but that doesn’t date from yesterday,” he said on broadcaster Franceinfo. “We lost control of the epidemic several weeks ago already.” Europe’s confirmed death toll has surpassed 250,000 according to a count by Johns Hopkins University, which puts the global toll at more than 1.1 million. A senior World Health Organization official said national lockdowns could be avoided if people are willing to make sacrifices. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead on COVID-19, said she hoped countries would use other tools to stop transmission, including strengthening their surveillance, testing and contact tracing systems. “We can avoid national lockdowns,” Van Kerkhove said. She said people should take personal responsibility for everyday decisions, like whether or not they should go to crowded places, avoiding closed settings and postponing social gatherings.

Italy, the first country in the West to get slammed by COVID-19, took new measures over the weekend to try to rein in the new outbreak, ordering restaurants and bars closed by 6 p.m., and shutting down gyms, pools and movie theaters. The measures, which took effect Monday, also require high schools to transition to at least 75% distance learning while letting younger students remain in classrooms. Indoor and outdoor gatherings, including those for religious reasons, are barred, and the government is strongly recommending people avoid having house guests and traveling in the country except for work, health or other necessities. The new restrictions sent Rome resident Matteo Serba to the city’s Villa Borghese for a run Monday. “I used to go to gym. Now jogging in the park is the alternative,” Serba said. “Unfortunately, we have no other alternatives but coming here. It’s sad but we have been asked to do it and we comply with the rules.” Italy has been registering around 20,000 new confirmed infections per day and health authorities have warned that some hospital COVID-19 wards risk hitting the saturation point in the next week or two. British authorities are likely to tighten restrictions on more areas of the country this week, amid mixed signs about whether measures introduced in the last few weeks have stemmed a steep rise in infections. Government scientific advisers say there are some signs the increase has begun to level off since a three-tier system of restrictions came into force, but that it is too soon to be certain. A large chunk of northern England, including the major cities of Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield, has been placed in the top tier of “very high” risk, with pubs closed and people from different households barred from mixing. The government said that Warrington, another large town in the northwest, will be added to the top tier on Tuesday. Another city, Nottingham, will follow on Thursday, authorities there said.

Lawmakers in the Czech Republic, which has been one of the hardest-hit nations in the pandemic’s resurgence in Europe, are set to approve this week a government plan to draft up to 300 military health personnel from NATO and EU countries to help treat the influx of patients. They will help their Czech colleagues at Prague’s military hospital and at a field hospital for 500 patients that the armed forces completed over the weekend at Prague’s exhibition ground. The first group of 28 National Guard doctors from the United States is expected to arrive later this week. Authorities also said they are canceling Prague’s major Christmas markets because of the virus. The Bavarian city of Nuremberg also canceled its big Christmas market, one of Germany’s best-known and a major tourist draw. City officials originally wanted the bustling Christkindlesmarkt to go ahead under strict hygiene rules, but Mayor Marcus Koenig said they concluded it would send the wrong signal as virus cases rise. “This decision is very difficult for us. The Christkindlesmarkt with its great tradition belongs to Nuremberg,” Koenig said. Germany’s rising coronavirus numbers also prompted Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party to delay for the second time a decision on who will become its new leader — one that had already been pushed by the pandemic from the spring to December. Whoever wins the Christian Democratic Union’s leadership will be in a position to become the center-right candidate to succeed Merkel as chancellor in a German election expected next fall, although that isn’t guaranteed. —- Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands. Associated Press reporters across Europe contributed. —- Follow all of AP’s coronavirus coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

Europe, US Reel As Virus Infections Surge At Record Pace

Coronavirus cases around the world have climbed to all-time highs of more than 330,000 per day as the scourge comes storming back across Europe and spreads with renewed speed in the U.S., forcing many places to reimpose tough restrictions eased just months ago. Well after Europe seemed to have largely tamed the virus that proved so lethal last spring, newly confirmed infections are reaching unprecedented levels in Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy and Poland. Most of the rest of the continent is seeing similar danger signs. France announced a 9 p.m. curfew in Paris and other big cities. Londoners face new restrictions on meeting with people indoors. The Netherlands closed bars and restaurants this week. The Czech Republic and Northern Ireland shut schools. Poland limited restaurant hours and closed gyms and pools. In the United States, new cases per day are on the rise in 44 states, with many of the biggest surges in the Midwest and Great Plains, where resistance to masks and other precautions has been running high and the virus has often been seen as just a big-city problem. Deaths per day are climbing in 30 states. “I see this as one of the toughest times in the epidemic,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, an infectious-disease specialist at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas. “The numbers are going up pretty rapidly. We’re going to see a pretty large epidemic across the Northern Hemisphere.” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious-disease expert, said Americans should think hard about whether to hold Thanksgiving gatherings. “Everyone has this traditional, emotional, warm feeling about the holidays and bringing a group of people, friends and family, together in the house indoors,” he said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “We really have to be careful this time that each individual family evaluates the risk-benefit of doing that.” Responses to the surge have varied in hard-hit states. In North Dakota, Republican Gov. Doug Burgum raised the coronavirus risk level in 16 counties this week but issued no mandated restrictions. In Wisconsin, a judge temporarily blocked an order from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers that would limit the number of people in bars and restaurants. South Dakota on Wednesday broke its record for COVID-19 hospitalizations and new cases and has had more deaths from the disease less than halfway through October than in any other full month. Despite the grim figures, GOP Gov. Kristi Noem has resisted pressure to step up the state’s response to the disease. Wisconsin hit a new daily high for confirmed infections for the second time this week. In Missouri, the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 reached nearly 1,450, another record. Dr. Marc Larsen, who oversees the COVID-19 response at Kansas City-based St. Luke’s Health System, said the system’s rural hospitals are seeing surges just as bad as in Kansas City. “Early on in this pandemic, it was felt that this was a big-city problem, and now this is stretching out into the rural communities where I think there has not been as much emphasis on masking and distancing,” he said. New cases in the U.S. have risen over the past two weeks from about 40,000 per day on average to more than 52,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. (Cases peaked in the U.S. over the summer at nearly 70,000 a day.) Deaths were relatively stable over the past two weeks, at around 720 a day. That is well below the U.S. peak of over 2,200 dead per day in late April. Worldwide, deaths have fallen slightly in recent weeks to about 5,200 a day, down from a peak of around 7,000 in April. Dr. Hans Kluge, the head of the World Health Organization’s Europe office, urged governments to be “uncompromising” in controlling the virus. He said most of the spread is happening because people aren’t complying with the safety rules. Europe’s financial markets fell sharply Thursday on concerns that the new restrictions will undercut the continent’s economic recovery. Stocks were down slightly on Wall Street. In France, which reported over 22,000 new infections Wednesday, President Emmanuel Macron put 18 million residents in nine regions, including Paris, under a curfew starting Saturday. The country will deploy 12,000 police officers to enforce it. Italy set a one-day record for infections and recorded the highest daily death toll of this second wave, adding 83 victims to bring its count to nearly 36,400, the second-highest in Europe after Britain. In Britain, London and seven other areas face restrictions that will mean more than 11 million people will be barred from meeting with anyone indoors from outside their households and will be asked to minimize travel starting this weekend. European nations have seen nearly 230,000 confirmed deaths from the virus, while the U.S. has recorded over 217,000, though experts agree the official figures understate the true toll. So far in the new surges, deaths have not increased at the same pace as infections. For one thing, it can take time for people to get sick and die of the virus. Also, many of the new cases involve young people, who are less likely than older ones to get seriously ill. Patients are benefiting from new drugs and other improvements in treating COVID-19. And nursing homes, which were ravaged by the virus last spring, have gotten better at controlling infections. But experts fear it is only a matter of time before deaths start rising in step with infections. “All of this does not bode well,” said Josh Michaud, associate director of global health policy with the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington. “Rapid increases in cases like we’re seeing now are always followed by increases in hospitalizations and deaths, which is what is likely to occur across much of Europe and the U.S. in the coming weeks and months.” Among the areas hit by the new surge is Gove County in Kansas, where the sheriff, the emergency management director, the CEO of the local hospital and more than 50 medical staff members have tested positive. Dr. Doug Gruenbacher, a physician who contracted the virus in September, said people around Gove County are concerned about their personal liberty and “not wanting to be told what to do.” “That’s part of the reason of why we love it here, because of that spirit and because of that independence,” he said. “But unfortunately, it’s something that also contributes to some of the difficulties that we’re having right now.” Full Coverage: Virus Outbreak ___ Associated Press writers around Europe and the U.S. contributed to this report. __ Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak