TOP HEADLINES

- A fitness tracker app launched this spring in Germany to monitor the spread of COVID-19 indicates that recently imposed social-distancing measures have yet to slow a second wave of infection.

- New COVID-19 infections in England have stabilized at around 50,000 a day, the Office for National Statistics said on Friday.

- The UK has reported 23,287 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday and 355 deaths from the virus, down on the numbers recorded on Thursday.

- Latvia is to begin a four-week lockdown from November 9 in a bid to slow the surge in cases.

- Sweden has reported 4,697 new cases in the past 24 hours, the highest number recorded since the start of the pandemic.

- Germany's biggest airline Lufthansa is to start trialling pre-flight tests from next week, with only those testing negative or provide evidence of a negative test within the past 48 hours would be allowed to fly.

- Austria's health minister Rudolf Anschober has admitted that the country's intensive care beds could be full within the next two weeks. 

- Italy's regions of Lombardy, Piedmont, Valle D'Aosta and Calabria entered a second lockdown on Friday.

- Hungary will try to avoid closing its schools for as long as possible but hospital treatments may have to be rescheduled due to the influx in virus patients, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said.

- The UK has removed Germany, Sweden and Denmark from its list of 'safe' countries. Travelers arriving from Germany and Sweden will have to self-isolate from 4 a.m. local time on Saturday, and 4.a.m. local time on Friday from Denmark.

- Ireland says it's "on target" to get the second wave of infections under control by December 1, according to Philip Nolan, the chair of the Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group.

- Beijing has added France to its travel ban list for non-Chinese foreign visitors as the pandemic's second wave continues to surge across Europe. 

- Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has admitted the decision to put the nation back into a three-week lockdown "was a difficult decision" but said "measures must be taken for three weeks to overcome this second wave."

- In the UK, students at Manchester University ripped down fencing that had been installed around their halls of residence, saying they felt 'imprisoned.' The university later apologized.

- Hundreds of anti-restriction protesters gathered in Slovenia's capital Ljubljana on Thursday evening, with some attacking police officers who warned them that public gatherings were banned. 

- Romania is to introduce a night-time curfew and close all schools for 30 days from Monday to slow the spread of the virus. 

- The arthritis drug of Swiss drugmaker Novartis failed to help patients with the virus survive without invasive ventilation compared with standard therapy, the company said after a late-phase clinical trial. 

- Former MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi, who missed two races because of the virus, has been cleared to travel to Spain after his latest test came back negative.

ACROSS EUROPE

Toni Waterman in Brussels

Belgian health officials say the county may have passed the peak of the second wave of coronavirus infections. Speaking at a press briefing, virologist and interfederal COVID-19 spokesperson Steven Van Guch said the figures have evolved in the "right direction" and that "it is possible that we are past the peak of the second wave."

But he warned infections still remain very high at 13, 213 a day in the past week and that it will take a very long time to get to the bottom of the slope down.

The average number of new daily infections fell 16 percent in the past seven days compared to the week before, but the number of deaths continues to rise, nearly doubling in over the same timeframe.

Ross Cullen in Paris

More than 58,000 cases of COVID-19 were identified on Thursday, another daily record for new infections in France. 

The health minister, Olivier Veran, said: "How long the restrictions last depends in a large part on us."  He explained that if the rules are followed then "the second wave will be very strong but less intense than the first." 

About 85 percent of beds in intensive care are now occupied, with 4,000 people being treated for COVID-19 in intensive care units. 

Health protocols will be strengthened in high schools, which will be able to switch to more distance-learning courses, provided they keep at least 50 percent of face-to-face lessons. 

From November 6, all passengers from France bound for China's mainland must take both a nucleic acid test and a blood test for antibodies against the coronavirus. The tests must be done no more than 48 hours before boarding.

Alex Fraser in Milan

In four regions of Italy a second lockdown has begun. Lombardy, Piedmont, Valle D'Aosta and Calabria, have been designated as red zones, which means people can only leave their homes for work, health emergencies or to buy designated essential items. Travel in, out and within the red zone is banned. Bars, restaurants and many shops must close.

The cities of Milan and Turin fall under these restrictions. 

The governors of three of the red zone regions have reacted angrily to the local lockdowns. They are unhappy with the methods used by the government to decide which areas would be declared red zones. They say the epidemiological data used is 10 days out of date.

The rest of Italy is divided into orange and yellow zones, although those regions are under tighter restrictions, they are not under lockdown. All of Italy now has a nightly curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m..

On Thursday, Italy reported 34,505 new cases – the highest total it has confirmed in a day since the start of the pandemic. In the previous 24 hours, 445 people died.

Mark Webster, Budapest

Hungary's foreign minister has announced the country will start importing small quantities of a Russian-made COVID-19 vaccine in December for final testing and licensing. 

Peter Szijjarto said Budapest would increase imports of the drug from late January and there are plans for a Hungarian company to switch from producing a seasonal flu vaccine to the anti COVID-19 treatment.

Tighter measures are now in place across the country in an effort to reduce the recent rapid rise in coronavirus infections and the borders will remain closed until December 1.

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