TOP HEADLINES

• Hungary has registered its highest daily rise of infections, with 365 new cases recorded on Wednesday as people return from summer holidays and the school year starts. The country's total cases now stand at 6,622, with 619 deaths. 

• The European Union has warned Hungary that it cannot close its borders to all foreigners and allow only its own citizens back in. Gergely Gulyas, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff, said foreigners now cannot enter the country, except in "justified cases." 

• Ukraine registered a record 2,495 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, the national security council said on Wednesday. 

• The first shots of British drugmaker AstraZeneca's potential COVID-19 vaccine could be on the market by the end of 2020, Italian health minister Roberto Speranza said on Wednesday. 

• Europe's healthcare regulator said on Wednesday it was evaluating Dexamethasone Taw as a potential COVID-19 treatment for hospitalized adult patients after it received an application from drug developer Taw Pharma. 

• Treating critically ill COVID-19 patients with corticosteroid drugs reduces the risk of death by a fifth, an analysis of seven international trials found on Wednesday, prompting the World Health Organization to update its advice on treatment. 

• COVID-19 infections in Europe are back to the levels of March when the outbreak began its peak phase there, the head of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said on Wednesday. "The virus has not been sleeping over the summer. It did not take vacation," said Andrea Ammon of the European Union's public health agency.

• Anti-lockdown protesters and face-mask refusers can be called "Covidiots," German prosecutors said on Wednesday, dismissing legal complaints against Social Democrat co-leader Saskia Esken, who used the term on Twitter. 

• Ireland's "green list" of countries exempt from travel restrictions is under review after a spike in Irish COVID-19 cases made adding countries with a similar or slightly better incidence rate too risky, the country's health minister said.

• More than four million people have been infected with the coronavirus in Europe, according to a tally by news agency AFP using official data from across the continent.

• Scotland has banned indoor household gatherings in the country's largest city Glasgow and two nearby areas of West Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was apologetic: "I live in Glasgow, so these rules apply to me as they do to everyone else."

• Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Roche announced it will launch at the end of September a test that detects the novel coronavirus within 15 minutes. Roche will launch and distribute the product in partnership with biotech company SD Biosensor Inc.

• Scotland is to impose a 14-day quarantine on all arrivals from Greece, starting on Thursday. The Welsh government has imposed quarantine on those returning from the island of Zante, while the UK government will decide later this week for those returning to England. 

ACROSS EUROPE

Andrew Wilson in UK

The Scottish government has announced three local lockdowns affecting 800,000 people in three areas of the country including Glasgow after a sudden rise in infections. Scotland's first minister said the principal concern was gatherings in people's homes.

Westminster is considering extending quarantine measures on travelers to England from Portugal and Greece. Scotland has already instigated 14-day measures on flights from Greece and the Welsh government is considering the same unilateral action.

Figures from Scotland suggest that school attendance is only running at about 85 percent, which means about 100,000 pupils are absent. Some ministers are concerned this illustrates a trend that England may follow in a couple of weeks.

Toni Waterman in Paris

Months of lockdown have wiped more than a billion dollars off the balance sheet of the world's second largest spirits maker. French company Pernod Ricard said revenues fell 9.5 percent in its fiscal year, with a 36.2 percent drop in Q4 alone. 

The owner of brands like Mumm champagne and Absolut vodka said it expects the coming year to be "volatile and uncertain" although resilience in supermarket sales in the U.S. and Europe could help buoy the balance sheet. 

Meanwhile, new infections continue to spike in France. The country recorded 4,982 new cases in the past 24 hours – that's 1,900 more than the previous day. 

Isobel Ewing in Budapest

A Hungarian academic concerned at the country's skyrocketing COVID-19 case numbers has urged for more testing and better social distancing and use of masks. Hungary recorded its highest daily increase in COVID-19 infections on Wednesday, with 365 new cases.

Gergely Röst, professor at the University of Sciences Szeged and director of the Pandemic Mathematical group, said the virus's reproductive rate is up to 2-2.5, which he calls "extremely alarming." "We already stressed in April, and it hasn't changed since, that we need a combination of strategies," said Rost, who insists social distancing is important, but masks must be worn in indoor public places and testing increased.

Rost says there is no real mapping of the infected in Hungary, making it impossible to isolate them or determine how to break the chain of infection. He added cases being brought in from abroad only make up 10 percent of the total registered cases, whereas the majority are a result of community transmission, mostly among younger people.

FROM OUR GLOBAL COLLEAGUES

CGTN Europe podcast: Notes on a pandemic: New hope for the planet

CGTN China: Will drone delivery be a new normal in the post-pandemic era?

CGTN America: U.S. schools and universities struggle to open amid COVID-19 threat

CGTN Africa: Africa's COVID-19 cases pass 1.25 million as death toll approaches 30,000

Sign up here to get the COVID-19 Europe bulletin sent directly to your inbox

CGTN Europe has been providing in-depth coverage of the novel coronavirus story as it has unfolded. Here you can read the essential information about the crisis.