France tries to avert lockdown

French authorities were yesterday searching for ways to limit the spread of coronavirus without a new lockdown as the country reported 7,379 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Friday.

England yesterday also raised the possibility of "very extensive local lockdowns" in the event of a winter wave, the government said, with a "worst-case scenario" of 80,000 deaths.

"Cases go up again, and we have to use very extensive local lockdowns or take further national action. We don't rule that out but we don't want to see it", Health Secretary Matt Hancock told The Times newspaper.

On Friday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned the crisis will be "more difficult" in the autumn and winter.

The daily tally in France was just shy of the record 7,578 high set on March 31, at the peak of an initial wave of Covid-19 infections that paralysed Europe. The surge has raised the possibility that the government could be forced to shut the country down again.

"We're doing everything to avoid another lockdown, and in particular a nationwide lockdown," President Emmanuel Macron told journalists earlier on Friday. He added it would be dangerous to rule out any scenario.

In a weekly review of the pandemic, the health ministry said the country was seeing an "exponential progression of virus transmission".

The pandemic has killed at least 838,271 people worldwide since surfacing in China late last year, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT yesterday.

More than 24.7 million cases have been registered.

The United States has recorded the highest number of deaths with 181,779, followed by Brazil with 119,504, Mexico with 63,164, India with 62,550 and Britain with 41,486 fatalities.

Like other hard-hit western European countries, France imposed a sudden and strict lockdown in March, during which most residents were confined to their homes. The restrictions were gradually lifted from May 11 after infections sharply dropped.

The reopening of schools on Tuesday next week has been widely anticipated as a major step back towards normality. More than 12 million children will return to school, most for the first time in more than five months.

So far, the rapid increase in case numbers has yet to lead to a similar surge in hospitalisations or deaths. The ministry reported 20 new COVID-19 deaths on Friday, raising the cumulative total to 30,596. The number of people in hospital with the disease was unchanged at 4,535 and the number in intensive care rose by six to 387.

Authorities say the virus is now spreading among younger people who are less likely to show severe symptoms.

Berlin police call for the dispersal of a mass demonstration against pandemic restrictions and mask wearing because participants are not respecting social distancing measures.

Thousands of coronavirus sceptics have descended on Berlin for the protest that has been allowed to go ahead after a bitter legal battle.

In India, authorities reported 76,472 new coronavirus cases yesterday, slightly lower than the record breaking numbers of the past couple of days, but extending a run that has made the country's outbreak currently the world's worst.

India has reported a total of 3.46 million cases during the pandemic, a tally that places them behind the United States and Brazil in terms of total caseload.

However, the south Asian country has reported higher single-day case rises than both those countries for almost two weeks.

India's death toll rose by 1,021 to 62,550, data from the federal health ministry showed, even as local media reported that some nationwide restrictions on travel could be eased from next week.

The goverment might allow underground train networks to partially reopen, local media reported, an easing that Delhi's chief minister has said is necessary to get the city back to full speed.

The western Indian state of Maharashtra, home to India's financial capital Mumbai, recorded 331 fatalities, the steepest single-day increase among all states over the past two days.

Meanwhile, German police yesterday halted a march by some 18,000 coronavirus sceptics in Berlin because many were not respecting social distancing measures. The mass protest against pandemic restrictions had been allowed to go ahead after a bitter legal battle.

But it had barely begun at 0900 GMT at the city's iconic Brandenburg Gate, when it was forced to stop due to a police injunction triggering anger among its participants.