TOP HEADLINES

• Paris is to be placed on maximum alert for two weeks from Tuesday, the French prime minister's office said. Bars will close and restaurants will have to upgrade new sanitary protocols. 

• Ireland's health chiefs have recommended a second nationwide lockdown for four weeks – but the government is set to tighten current restrictions instead, sources suggested ahead of a cabinet meeting late on Tuesday afternoon. 

• UK authorities have admitted nearly 16,000 positive test results had been "lost" in the track-and-trace system over the previous 10 days, prompting a government investigation. The results had reached those tested but not contact tracers, and had not been included in previous figures.

• Moscow schools began unplanned holidays on Monday and businesses were required to have at least 30 percent of staff working remotely. Deputy education minister Viktor Basyuk said Moscow schools would fully shift to remote education from 19 October.

• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday she had tested negative for COVID-19 but would self-isolate until Tuesday evening after attending a meeting with someone who tested positive.

• Roughly one in 10 people may have been infected with the coronavirus, the World Health Organization's Mike Ryan said on Monday, meaning "the vast majority of the world remains at risk."

• UK finance minister Rishi Sunak warned that a further lockdown would cripple both the economy and society, but admitted ministers were divided on the issue.

• An initiative from Germany's Social Democrat labour minister to give people the right to work from home faces opposition from Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and business groups. 

• Poland canceled a ceremony at which the president was to confirm new ministers, after incoming education minister Przemyslaw Czarnek tested positive. Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is being tested after an unidentified close colleague tested positive, while Lithuanian foreign affairs minister Linas Linkevicius is self-isolating after contact with members of French President Emmanuel Macron's delegation who later tested positive.

• U.S. chip giant Nvidia said on Monday it is building Britain's most powerful supercomputer, which will use artificial intelligence to help researchers solve pressing medical challenges, including those related to COVID-19.

• Russia has called for an evaluation of the legal and financial repercussions of the Trump administration announcing the U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization next July.

• Iceland has closed bars, gyms and entertainment venues and sharply cut the number of people allowed to gather in public, from 200 to 20, as it attempts to control a rise in cases. 

CLICK: OUR SERIES EXPLORES HOW SOCIETY HAS BEEN DISRUPTED BY THE PANDEMIC

ACROSS EUROPE

Ross Cullen in Paris

The French prime minister says new coronavirus restrictions are being brought in for Paris from Tuesday 6 October. Jean Castex says the French capital has now passed all the criteria that show the city should now be classed as being in the "maximum alert zone." 

Bars will close in Paris for two weeks from tomorrow but restaurants can stay open if they bring in tougher sanitary measures. Working from home is now strongly recommended and university lecture theaters must only run at 50 percent capacity. 

On Saturday, France recorded the highest daily number of new COVID-19 infections since the start of the outbreak – nearly 17,000 in 24 hours. The authorities see the southern region around Marseille as being especially problematic in terms of new cases, which authorities have used as justification to keep bars shut in the second city, although restaurants can now reopen, provided they tighten the health protocols they are using in their establishments.

Toni Waterman in Brussels

Belgium

The Brussels capital region continues to experience the sharpest increase in new coronavirus cases in Belgium. The municipality of Molenbeek-Saint-Jean is the worst hit, with 744 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants and its mayor says new measures could be introduced as early as Friday. 

Belgium recorded an average of 2,103 new infections per day between 25 September and 1 October, up 32 percent from the week before. In a bid to understand the spread, new testing facilities are opening across the capital region, including one on the edge of Cinquantenaire park, with the ability to carry out 1,200 tests per day. Three more facilities are scheduled to open across the city in coming weeks. 

Brussels

The European Commission president is the latest of Brussels' top-brass to head into self-isolation. In a tweet, Ursula von der Leyen said she "participated in a meeting last Tuesday attended by a person" who tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday. She said she tested negative for the virus on Thursday and was being tested again on Monday.

As MEPs head back into the hemicycle, the parliament's COVID-19 testing facility has officially opened its doors. Around 200 tests can be carried out per day with MEPs and their staff getting the results within 24-hours. 

Mia Alberti in Frankfurt

Germany has passed 300,000 cases of coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic. On Monday, there were 1,382 new cases, bringing the total to 300,619 infections. There were also five more deaths, increasing the death toll to 9,534, according to the Robert Koch Institute.

The important milestone comes as German officials impose new restriction measures and urge citizens to redouble precautions as the number of infections rises again. On Sunday, economy minister Peter Altmaier said that the U.S. President Donald Trump testing positive for the coronavirus was proof politicians need to take the pandemic "more seriously."

Nawied Jabarkhyl in London

It has emerged that nearly 16,000 cases of COVID-19 went unreported in the UK in recent weeks. Public Health England – which oversees the response to the virus in the country – said 15,841 positive cases were left out of the daily figures between 25 September and 2 October. It blamed a "technical issue" which it said has now been resolved but there are concerns that people who came into contact with those affected have not been traced.

Elsewhere, the world's second largest cinema chain, Cineworld, is temporarily shutting its screens in the UK, U.S. and Ireland. The move is due to low customer demand as a result of COVID-19 and puts 45,000 jobs at risk, including 5,500 in Britain. Cineworld's shares in London plunged more than 50 percent after the news.

FROM OUR GLOBAL COLLEAGUES

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