Italy, England brace for Christmas lockdowns as Europe battles virus surge

• India’s coronavirus cases pass 10 million

LONDON: Millions of people in England and Italy will celebrate Christmas under tough new coronavirus restrictions announced Saturday as Europe battled a winter surge in infections and Switzerland became the latest country to approve a virus vaccine.

Europe has become the first region in the world to pass 500,000 deaths from Covid-19 since the pandemic broke out a year ago, killing more than 1.6 million worldwide and pitching the global economy into turmoil.

Among those testing positive this week for coronavirus was French President Emmanuel Macron, but his office said on Saturday his condition was stable and his examinations were giving reassuring results.

Italy on Saturday announced a new regime of restrictions until January 6 that included limits on people leaving their homes more than once a day, closing non-essential shops, bars and restaurants and curbs on regional travel.

“It’s right that they prohibit departures after 20 December if it means travelling in safety,” Claudia Patrone, a 33-year-old lawyer, told AFP as she got off a train in Milan. “I took the test before leaving, I stayed locked in my house, I didn’t see anyone. The measure is right if everyone respects the rules and guarantees safety.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also announced a new “stay at home” order for London and southeast England — an area including around a third of England’s population — to slow a new strain of the virus that he said was “up to 70 percent more transmissible”.

“It is with a very heavy heart I must tell you we cannot continue with Christmas as planned,” Johnson told the nation in a televised briefing.

“Alas when the facts change, you have to change your approach.”

Residents in the affected areas will have to go into lockdown at least until December 30, Johnson said, cancelling out earlier plans to temporarily relax virus restrictions over the festive period so that up to three households could mix.

Swiss regulators on Saturday give the green light to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine — the 16th country to do so and the first in continental Europe — with immunisation set to start within days.

“Those who are particularly vulnerable will have priority,” Health Minister Alain Berset said in a video tweet, namely the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions.

In India the total number of cases moved past 10 million on Saturday, the second highest in the world, although new infection rates appear to have fallen sharply in recent weeks.

The United States on Friday authorised Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, paving the way for millions of doses of a second jab to be shipped across the hardest-hit country in the world.