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European Cities Locked Down Amid Coronavirus Surge

Henry Ridgwell

   LONDON - Dozens of European cities have been forced into lockdown amid
   a surge in coronavirus infections. Hospital intensive care units in the
   affected regions are filling up fast and doctors are warning that
   health systems could become overwhelmed as winter approaches.

   Europe is now reporting more daily infections than the three countries
   worst hit by the pandemic -- the United States, Brazil, and India.

   Paris, along with eight other French cities, including Rouen, Lille,
   St. Etienne, Lyon, Grenoble, Montpellier, Marseille and Toulouse, have
   been put under night-time curfew. All restaurants, bars and shops will
   be forced to close, and people have been told to stay at home between
   the hours of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. for four weeks beginning Oct. 17.

   Announcing the measures in a televised address Wednesday, French
   President Emmanuel Macron warned of tough times ahead. "Testing,
   alerting, protecting, this is the key to the strategy that we have to
   ramp up throughout November and December, because we are going to have
   to deal with this virus until at least the summer of 2021, all the
   scientists are clear," Macron said.

   Some residents of the French capital expressed alarm at the return of a
   partial lockdown. "My first reaction was that it's going to be hell,"
   said 25-year-old Mathilde Weiss, a product manager. "I'm absolutely not
   going to have a social life anymore. So, I'm a little apprehensive, I
   admit."

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