COVID-19: Paris On Maximum Alert, Ireland Braces For Lockdown

• Paris, Ireland COVID-19

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 the government imposes a second nationwide lockdown for four weeks – a leap to Level 5 restrictions from current Level 2 controls in 24 of Ireland’s 26 counties and stricter Level 3 measures in Dublin and Donegal.

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UK authorities have admitted nearly 16,000 positive test results had been “lost” in the track-and-trace system over the previous 10 days.

The results had reached those tested but not contact tracers, and had not been included in previous figures.

Moscow authorities are reported to be considering a strict lockdown, including remote learning for schoolchildren.

Russia reported 10,499 new cases on Sunday, its highest number since 15 May, when lockdowns were in place.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is self-isolating until tomorrow after attending a meeting last Tuesday with someone who tested positive.

“I’ve tested negative on Thursday and am tested again today,” she tweeted.

A new three-tier lockdown is being planned for England, The Guardian newspaper reports, citing government documents.

Designed to improve compliance by simplifying existing restrictions, the new lockdown could close pubs and ban all social contact outside household groups.

Germany’s economy minister, Peter Altmaier, decried “politicians, in Donald Trump’s party, but also in other countries and also here with us, who are playing it down, who are pretending that you can stand up to the virus and nothing would happen.”

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.

Cineworld, the world’s second-biggest movie theater chain, has confirmed it will close all its cinemas in the UK, U.S. and Ireland this week, with the loss of up to 45,000 jobs.

Ukraine health minister Maksym Stepanov says the country’s daily number of new cases could top 5,000 later this week, after a record 4,661 on Saturday. He called the situation “tense but not critical.”

Britain’s vaccine task force chair Kate Bingham said that vaccinating everyone in the country was “not going to happen,” insisting any jab would be “for people over 50, focusing on health workers and care home workers and the vulnerable.”

One of Italy’s top soccer fixtures ended in farce when Juventus players took to the field despite opponents Napoli being 900 kilometers away, having been placed into isolation by the health authority (ASL) after two players tested positive in the past four days.

German tennis player Alexander Zverev played with fever and breathing difficulties during his fourth-round French Open defeat to Italian Jannik Sinner, raising questions about COVID-19 protocols at the clay court Grand Slam.