A mother and her children take a walk at the Trocadero Square near the Eiffel Tower, in Paris, France, Nov. 16, 2020. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)
-- France's COVID-19 cases top 2 mln;
-- UK records highest daily coronavirus-related death toll since May 6;
-- Germany adds 14,419 COVID-19 cases.
BRUSSELS, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- The following are the latest developments of the COVID-19 pandemic in European countries.
PARIS -- France on Tuesday became the first European country to record over two million confirmed COVID-19 cases, although epidemic indicators were gradually improving, said Health General Director Jerome Salomon.
After a record of some 69,500 new cases was registered on Nov. 2, "the incidence rate has been declining. But the number of cases, which is still very high, must return to a reasonable level which the President of the Republic (Emmanuel Macron) has set at 5,000," Salomon told reporters at a weekly briefing on the epidemic situation.
Over the past 24 hours, 45,522 people tested positive for COVID-19, taking the national total to 2,036,755. The death toll rose by 1,219 to 46,273, according to data released by the Health Ministry.
Meanwhile, the total number of hospitalizations decreased by 327 to 33,170. This includes 4,854 COVID-19 patients who are in intensive care, down from 4,919 on Monday.
A man wearing a face mask walks on a street in London, Britain, on Nov. 12, 2020. (Xinhua/Han Yan)
LONDON -- The coronavirus-related deaths in Britain rose by 598 to 52,745, marking the highest daily number of fatalities since May 6, according to official figures released Tuesday.
Another 20,051 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 1,410,732, the data showed.
England is currently under a month-long national lockdown until Oct. 2, the second of its kind since the coronavirus outbreak began in Britain, in a bid to quell the resurgence of coronavirus.
Pedestrians wearing face masks are seen at a market in Munich, Germany, on Nov. 13, 2020. (Photo by Kevin Voigt/Xinhua)
BERLIN -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the federal state governments have agreed not to tighten mandatory COVID-19 measures in Germany for the time being as the rate of new COVID-19 infections in the country has begun to slow, local media reported Tuesday.
Instead of introducing tougher COVID-19 measures, Merkel and the minister presidents of the federal states only appealed to the German population to reduce social contact to a minimum as the country is in the middle of a partial month-long lockdown for November, according to Deutsche Presse Agentur.
Germany's confirmed COVID-19 cases rose 14,419 to 815,746, said the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the federal government agency for disease control and prevention, on Tuesday.
The total death toll from the disease rose by 267 to 12,814, the RKI added.■
