Europe warns of grim winter as COVID second wave gathers pace

Europe warns of grim winter as COVID second wave gathers pace European leaders warned of a bleak winter as resurgent COVID-19 infections forced countries to impose new restrictions to try to curb a second wave of the pandemic, with the United States and France setting new daily records for cases. James Mackenzie U.S.

MILAN (Reuters) - European leaders warned of a bleak winter as resurgent COVID-19 infections forced countries to impose new restrictions to try to curb a second wave of the pandemic, with the United States and France setting new daily records for cases.

More than 42.9 million people have been reported to be infected by the coronavirus globally and 1,151,929 have died, according to a Reuters tally, with the United States leading with the highest number of deaths and infections.

Word that a vaccine being developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca Plc produced immune responses in both elderly and young people offered some positive news as autumn turns to winter in the Northern Hemisphere.

But British Health Secretary Matt Hancock cautioned that the vaccine would not be widely available until next year and said “we’re not there yet”.

Elsewhere in Europe the picture was unrelentingly grim as a string of countries reported record increases, led by France, which posted more than 50,000 daily cases for the first time on Sunday, while the continent passed the threshold of 250,000 deaths.

Governments have been desperate to avoid the lockdowns which curbed the disease at the start of the year at the cost of shutting down their entire economies. But the steady rise in new cases has forced them to tighten curbs.

“We are facing very, very difficult months ahead,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel told a meeting of leaders from her Christian Democrat party, according to daily Bild. ...