TOP STORIES

• Europe's 300,000 new infections reported this week is higher than any previous week, including the first spike in spring, said World Health Organization (WHO) regional director Hans Kluge. In the past two weeks the number of new cases has doubled in more than half of European member states.

• UK prime minister Boris Johnson said the UK was facing an "inevitable" second wave, adding he did not want another national lockdown but that new restrictions may be necessary. New daily cases rose to 4,422 on Saturday, 100 more than on Friday, and the highest daily tally since May 8.

• Switzerland-based drug company Roche reports a medicine it sells to reduce inflammation has helped prevent the need for breathing machines among hospitalized COVID-19 patients, in a study from the Americas focused primarily on Hispanic and black patients. 

• Dutch justice minister Ferd Grapperhaus has been fined $460 after he was pictured breaking social distancing measures at his wedding. 

• Greece is tightening restrictions in the greater Athens area: suspending concerts, limiting gatherings to nine people and demanding 40 percent of work is done from home where possible.

• Iceland is closing venues and pubs in the Reykjavik area for four days as Denmark orders a 10 pm curfew for such venues and limits gatherings from 100 to 50 people.

• Germany has recorded its highest daily number of new cases since April, with 2,297 new infections.

• Europe's healthcare regulator has endorsed using dexamethasone to treat COVID-19 patients with breathing difficulties, paving the way for the steroid to become the region's second approved treatment for the respiratory illness.

• France's daily death toll rose to 123, a four-month high. Health authorities announced the sudden jump in deaths came from previously unreported cases in one hospital near Paris.

• Poland has reported its highest daily increase in cases - 1,002 - since the pandemic started as authorities tightened conditions under which doctors are obliged to send patients for testing. Neighbouring EU members Lithuania and Slovakia also logged their largest daily tallies with 99 and 290 new infections respectively. 

• The WHO has described the weekly global death toll of around 50,000 lives as unacceptably high.

• Germany's government is proposing to relax insolvency rules in 2021 to help avert a wave of bankruptcies amid the economic downturn caused by the pandemic.

• London mayor Sadiq Khan said new restrictions in the British capital were "increasingly likely" to be needed, as thousands of protesters opposed to lockdown measures gathered in the British capital on Saturday to oppose new restrictions. 

• French finance minister Bruno Le Maire has tested positive for coronavirus, but is asymptomatic and will continue working from home in quarantine.

AROUND EUROPE

Iolo ap Dafydd in London

UK prime minister Boris Johnson is spending the weekend deciding if he'll introduce tougher restrictions across England, as the government considers a surge of infections. Tighter measures are already in place in parts of England's northern and central regions, while Welsh, Northern Irish and Scottish assemblies have also used their devolved COVID-19 powers to tighten their own regulations.

The government is believed to be looking at an England-wide ban on households mixing, as well as reducing opening hours for restaurants, cafes and bars. From Tuesday onwards a fifth of the population – around 13.5 million people – will face daily restrictions as a surge of cases forces local lockdowns. London's mayor Sadiq Khan has said it's "increasingly likely" that additional measures will be imposed in the capital.

Daily cases are doubling every seven or eight days. On Friday, there were a further 4,322 confirmed, the first time the daily tally has been higher than 4,000 since 8 May.

The prime minister has said a second national lockdown would be disastrous for the economy, but he's now reported to be considering just that. After introducing 'the Rule of Six' last week – under which gatherings must be made up of six or fewer people – by Monday he may well decide to go further as he grapples with a significant rise in cases.

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Evangelo Sipsas in Berlin

Tourist season in Europe is coming to an end and as holidaymakers head home, there are concerns among policymakers and medical specialists about a "second wave" in countries still reeling from the pandemic's first peak. France has recorded over 10,000 new cases. Spain recorded nearly 9,000 new cases in a single day and in the UK more than 4,000 were infected in 24 hours. 

In Germany, as the weather gets cooler, the government is faced with a dilemma: how to stem a second wave while protecting the economy. German chancellor Angela Merkel agreed with all 16 regional leaders on imposing nationwide measures to curb the infection rate. 

The restrictions require people arriving from countries that remain on Germany's travel warning list to self-quarantine for 14 days. Masks should be worn at all times when using public transportation and major public events are banned until next year. Although the number of new cases is relatively low at 12 in every 100,000 people, there is a concern that could change as autumn approaches.

France

France has reported a record number of new daily cases – 13,215 – as coronavirus infections continue to mushroom alongside the daily death toll, which has jumped to a four-month high. 

The seven-day moving average of daily new infections has risen to more than 9,300, compared to a low of 272 at the end of May. France's health ministry has reported that the total number of deaths increased by 154 to 31,249, triple the levels of the past week.

Epidemiologists are blaming the spike on both faster circulation of the virus and a six-fold increase in testing, which is now free. New measures to curb the spread have included regional restrictions, including a ban on gatherings of more than 10 people in the city of Nice as well as early closing times for bars, with similar measures in place in Marseille and Bordeaux.

"We need to be lucid, very transparent, demanding but at the same time proportionate," president Emmanuel Macron said of the country's coronavirus response. It is a balance all leaders will have to strike.

Spain

Amid a new surge in infections in the country with the most confirmed cases in Western Europe, movement will be limited in the region including Madrid, affecting more than 850,000 people.

Parks and public areas in the capital area will be restricted and gatherings limited to six people, regional leader Isabel Diaz Ayuso said on Friday. However, people would not be stopped from going to work.

"We need to avoid lockdown, we need to avoid economic disaster," Ayuso told a news conference, announcing that movement would also be limited between and within areas badly affected by a new surge in coronavirus infections.
 

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