Germany scrambles to regain control as Europe battles second wave of Covid-19

The return of lockdowns is a blow to the entire European economy, reports Deutsche Welle's Chelsey Dulaney.

A huge wave of coronavirus infections is triggering a tightening of restrictions across Europe.

France announced a return to lockdown on Friday to ease pressure on hospitals.

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel defended the re-instatement of lockdown in the face of resistance in parliament.

Deutsche Welle correspondent Chelsey Dulaney gives an update on CapeTalk.

Here in Germany we've been reporting nearly 20,000 new infections a day... That's in part due to the increase in testing over the past few months... but clearly this is a really significant increase in cases.

Chelsey Dulaney, Deutsche Welle correspondent

We're already seeing hospitals reporting strains on their number of intensive care beds... In other European countries like France, Italy, the Netherlands, all of these countries are dealing with the same thing.

Chelsey Dulaney, Deutsche Welle correspondent

The new measures take effect on Monday.

What we're going to see starting Monday is bars closed, restaurants closed; cultural institutions like the opera, theatres, cinemas...

Chelsey Dulaney, Deutsche Welle correspondent

This is a bit of a shock for many people who had gotten so comfortable with the relative freedom that we had been able to have over the last couple of months.

Chelsey Dulaney, Deutsche Welle correspondent

She says, like in the rest of the world, there's a backlash on the ground against tougher restrictions.

In the last few days Germany's seen a strong pushback in the political arena as well.

There's been a bit of a fight between the federal states that decided these regulations and the parliamentary members who didn't get a chance to vote for these...

Chelsey Dulaney, Deutsche Welle correspondent

This will be a blow not just for Germany but for the entire European economy... We've already seen millions of people losing their jobs, really big companies like Lufthansa having to seek federal aid...

Chelsey Dulaney, Deutsche Welle correspondent

Listen to the conversation below:

More from World

More from Business