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Paris will ban delivery and takeaway services for prepared food and alcohol between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. from Friday to limit the spread of the coronavirus, which has infected a record number of 58,046 people nationally over 24 hours on Thursday.

The police prefecture also said the sale and consumption of alcoholic drinks in public spaces would be banned at night starting on Friday.

President Emmanuel Macron imposed a new lockdown last month, forcing non-essential shops - such as those not selling basic foods or medicines - to close, and making people use signed documents to justify being out on the streets.

But a week into the lockdown, France still registers more than 40,000 new virus infections per day and intensive care units across the country are under stress as more than 4,200 ICU beds are now occupied by COVID-19 patients.

The second wave of coronavirus infections tearing across France will be more severe than the first experienced in the spring if it is allowed to continue spreading at the current rate, the country's health minister said at a press conference.

There is already a lockdown and the numbers aren't doing what they're supposed to. Which means the lockdowns don't work as claimed!

France would see the number of COVID-19 sufferers in intensive care peak at 6,000 if the public complied with the new lockdown, or as many as 7,000 if the virus continued spreading as it is now with not everyone respecting the confinement rules, Health Minister Olivier Veran said.

MORE THAN 39,000 DEATHS

Restaurants, closed under lockdown rules, are allowed to serve takeaway and to deliver, but the prefecture said that at nighttime many customers and food couriers are congregating, despite the need to limit social interaction.

"When you get people who are not playing by the rules of the game, and are therefore putting at risk the health of a large number of people, that is when you need to put in place new restrictions," Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said on BFM TV as she warned of restrictions on selling takeaway food and drink.

A French government source said this week that they had noted in Paris "clandestine parties, raves, private dinners" and felt stricter measures were needed.

New COVID-19 lockdowns and curbs have stirred resistance across Europe even as countries including France and Spain deal with record daily infections and hospitals under pressure.

The 58,046 record was almost 6,000 higher than the previous one, set on Monday, and a further 363 deaths were registered on Thursday, taking the country's total death toll from the coronavirus to 39,037 while the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases stands at more than 1.6 million, the fifth-highest tally in the world.

The Paris region health authority said in a statement that 92% of the region's ICU capacity is now occupied, with nearly 1,050 COVID-19 patients and 600 patients with other problems.

Gilles Pialoux, head of infectious diseases at the Paris Tenon hospital, told Reuters that the only way to reduce the current infection rate in France was to limit the circulation of people.

"We will probably have to forget about Christmas holidays in order to save 2021. This year, Christmas will be over Skype," he said.

With five more fatalities on Thursday, Sweden's Covid death toll has hit 6,002. The country is facing a "serious situation" due to a spike in infections, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said as he himself went into isolation.

Lofven announced that he'll be working from home because a person from his social circle was in contact with someone who had been diagnosed with the coronavirus.

"It's the only responsible thing to do in this situation," the PM wrote on Facebook, adding that he and his wife will get tested as soon as possible, despite having no symptoms.

That's not what a responsible person does it's what a paranoid germophobe does.

Sweden's coronavirus case numbers were "going in the wrong direction quickly," he pointed out, referring to the recent rise in infections across the country.

More people are infected. More people are dying. It is a serious situation.

Lofven called upon the public to listen to the recommendations from both the government and local authorities, practice hygiene, work from home if possible and stay indoors if showing symptoms.

"Together we'll make sure that Sweden will pass this test," he wrote.

The number of deaths from coronavirus in Sweden, which has a population of 10.3 million people, is several times higher than in other Nordic nations, but lower than in the UK or Spain.

The country also registered 4,034 new cases of the disease on Thursday, which was one of the highest figures for a 24-hour period there since the start of the pandemic. To date, 141,764 Swedes have been diagnosed with Covid-19.

"There is a continued increase in the number of cases in all regions [of Sweden] except one," Karin Tegmark Wisell from the Swedish Health Agency said, adding that the percentage of positive tests had recently grown from 5.6 to 9.7 percent. There was also "a fairly significant increase" in the number of coronavirus patients in intensive care, she pointed out.

Sweden was one of the few countries to refrain from harsh national lockdown measures during the first wave of Covid-19 in spring, and still relies on non-coercive measures to curb its spread.

The stricter recommendations, which among other things advise people to avoid crowded indoor spaces and limit physical contact outside their households, have been expanded to two more of Sweden's 21 healthcare districts on Thursday, meaning that they now cover more than a half of the country.

Local and regional politicians across Italy have expressed outrage over Rome's decision to single out certain areas and designate them Covid-19 red zones, as the country fights to control the spread of the virus.

The government has announced that four regions - Calabria, Lombardy, Piedmont and Valle d'Aosta - will be designated coronavirus red zones and face partial shutdowns, as part of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's plan to combat soaring case numbers.

Two other regions, Puglia and Sicily, will be labelled as orange zones, having some restrictions imposed upon them, while 14 regions will remain listed as yellow zones, where they face only minimal measures.

Lombardy Governor Attilio Fontana called the government's decision "a slap in the face" to the region, calling for the PM to wait several days first to see if last month's measures have brought case numbers under control.

While Lombardy is registering the highest number of daily cases in the country, regularly exceeding 7,000, Calabria hasn't been impacted as severely, reporting 262 infections on Wednesday. However, the Italian government fears that hospitals in the region couldn't manage a serious outbreak. Calabria's acting governor, Nino Spirli, warned that the decision to impose further restrictions "could be fatal" to the area's economy.

Despite the criticism, the Italian government has stood by the new measures. Announcing the restrictions on Wednesday, Health Minister Roberto Speranza stated that, while "these choices will mean sacrifices and difficulties," they must be implemented, as they are "the only way to bend the curve."

Interesting turn of phrase.

On Thursday, Italy reported its highest ever single day of new coronavirus cases, recording 34,505 additional infections, along with 445 deaths - the first time that figure has risen above 400 since May 2. Since the start of the pandemic, the country has experienced a total of 824,879 cases and 40,192 deaths due to the virus.

The UK's chancellor has extended the government's job retention scheme until the end of March 2021, as Britain starts its second lockdown and fears of substantial job losses mount.

Rishi Sunak told lawmakers on Thursday that he would be extending the government's furlough scheme, which gives companies the chance to place employees on a paid, temporary leave of absence, until the end of March 2021.

The scheme, which sees the government paying up to 80 percent of a furloughed employee's wage, was due to end on October 31 but had been extended to cover the duration of England's four-week lockdown.

Last week's announcement that the scheme would be extended for England's lockdown but not the rest of the UK caused outrage in Scotland and Wales, as only people living in England would be able to benefit from the generous financial support package.

Thursday's announcement comes after a week of discussion over the duration and focus of the furlough's extension. Sunak told the Commons that he wanted "to give businesses security through the winter," adding that "the security we are providing will protect millions of jobs."

The move is the third change to the government's Covid support scheme for workers. "It is not a weakness to be agile and fast-moving in the face of a crisis, but rather a strength," the chancellor claimed.

The scheme, which has benefitted around 9.6 million Britons, was first introduced in March 2020 and has cost the government 40 billion pounds so far.

Sunak's statement comes after the Bank of England said it would begin a quantitative easing program, injecting more than 150 billion pounds into the UK economy amid fears of a double-dip recession this winter.

Most of the UK population is currently subject to a lockdown due to surging Covid-19 cases, with England entering a four-week lockdown from Thursday until December 2.

Sadiq Khan has called on the British government to stop pushing the 'false choice' between saving lives and protecting jobs, as the London mayor continues his war of words with Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

After England entered a new national lockdown at midnight on Thursday, Sadiq Khan called on the government to ensure that businesses are supported until the economy can recover, or they will be "gone for good." In his op-ed published in the Independent on Thursday, Khan accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of pushing a "false" choice between tackling the virus or protecting the economy, demanding ministers "must do both."

While he praised the extension of the furlough scheme and the support for the self-employed, he made clear that more business grants and support for the poorest individuals are "urgently needed."

London authorities and the UK government have been in a war of words over the level of economic support that is being provided, particularly to the capital city. The major dispute erupted over a bailout for Transport for London (TfL). While one has now been agreed, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps recently warned it was "not a blank cheque for Sadiq Khan."

The London mayor urged residents to not "lose hope in the face of new restrictions," as they will allow the city to drive the virus down and swiftly reopen the economy, moving the country back to normal.

For the next four-weeks, due to the national lockdown, residents in England must stay at home, leaving only for specific reasons including going to school, going to work if they can't do their job from home, to exercise or purchase essential goods, for medical reasons, or to support vulnerable people.

London reported 2,307 new daily cases on Wednesday, taking the total number of infections that have been reported in the city since the start of the pandemic to over 105,107. The city currently has a rate of 146 cases per 100,000 people, which is below the national average of 152 per 100,000.

Others recalled a no-less-infamous Democratic primary video of Biden telling a Latino immigration activist: "You should vote for Trump."

Biden was accused of offering the Latino community only platitudes and nothing policy-wise, taking their support for granted.