Cases Rising Rapidly across Much of Europe; China Conducts COVID-19 Testing Blitz
CURNOW: Countries across Europe are smashing records for daily coronavirus cases. New infections are spreading quickly and now far exceed the rise of new cases in the U.S. That's what Johns Hopkins and the World Health Organization are reporting. The WHO's Europe director says he is concerned but that national lockdowns must be a last resort.</s>HANS KLUGE, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: Is there a reason for panic, Becky? No. Am I worried? Yes, I'm very worried. There are some simple measures, systematic, generalized mask wearing, together with a strict control on social gatherings could save in this region about 281,000 lives in six months.</s>CURNOW: Melissa Bell joins me now from Paris. Melissa, hi, good to see you. Talk about this rise of infections in Paris and beyond.</s>MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The greater Paris region, which is one of the really worrying parts of France right now, has 46.8 percent of its ICU beds taken up by COVID-19 patients. That is already causing them to reprogram other emergency procedures. And it's increasingly worrying. The question is whether the fairly radical steps to impose these curfews, that came in effect last night at midnight, will be enough to control the rise that continues. Just this week, we saw a fresh record set on Thursday, night with more than 30,000 new cases declared. And, again, last night, 25,000 new cases declared. Just to give you an idea, that figure, once the French president announced the curfews on Wednesday, night explaining what he was trying to achieve, he said he wanted to get it back down to a situation where we are having no more than 3,000 to 5000 new cases announced every day. That is the distance that has to be achieved through these curfews.</s>BELL: From 9 pm to 6 am, you're not allowed to be out unless you have a piece of paper explaining you're visiting a doctor or looking after someone. For instance, you're one of the exceptions to the rule. Otherwise, you have to be home or you face a fine of 135 euros. Robyn?</s>CURNOW: No doubt, these rising infections, all of these announcements, to some extent, overshadowed by the beheading of a schoolteacher in a terror attack. It's just shocking. What do we know?</s>BELL: For the time being, we have a better idea now of how the events unfolded. This was a teacher who was decapitated in a Parisian suburb yesterday afternoon. His body was found in one location; police then gave chase to the man identified as the perpetrator of this attack and shot him. For the time being, authorities are very tightlipped about the identity of that assailant. Plenty of speculation from the French press. It has profoundly shocked the country and the French president went to the location last night, spoke of an Islamist terrorist attack and explained that the man in question, the teacher, the secondary school teacher who was found beheaded, had been simply trying to teach his children about freedom of speech. I think that is what is interesting in this case. Bear in mind, the context here is that the "Charlie Hebdo" trial continues here in Paris. We had an attack 3 weeks ago outside of their former offices. And this may also be linked. There is speculation in the French press about the fact that this teacher would have been shown the pictures of the Prophet Muhammad, asking Muslim children to leave the room in order to not offend them. The fact that he showed them in a classroom, causing a number of parents to complain and could have led this young man to decapitate him. That is essentially what the French press reports today. For the time being, again, the French authorities are being very tightlipped about this and we will learn more over the course of the day.</s>CURNOW: Thank you so much, we will come back to you, with any new updates. Thank you so much, live from Paris. Going back to the coronavirus and the cases that are reaching alarming levels, certainly, this is happening in the U.K. Especially as some cities, in the northwest of England, prime minister Boris Johnson had a message for the mayor of Greater Manchester. The mayor has been criticizing the British government for wanting pubs in the area to close, among other measures. Salma Abdelaziz explains.</s>SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER: London has raised its COVID alert level to high. That is the middle tier and starting Saturday, Londoners will be banned from meeting anyone outside of their household in an indoor setting. That means no meeting friends at pubs, bars or restaurants. Meanwhile, here in Manchester, the mayor is an open standoff with prime minister Boris Johnson over his plans to raise the alert level of the city to very high, the top tier. The mayor argues, he isn't willing to gamble the economy of Manchester over, what he says, is an experimental strategy. Prime minister Boris Johnson has responded by essentially hinting at an ultimatum, saying, he hopes the mayor will reconsider and engage constructively. Otherwise, the prime minister says, he will intervene to save Manchester's hospitals and the lives of its residents. The prime minister went on to say that the situation in Manchester is grave and gets worse with every passing day. That means the clock is ticking to get a grip on the virus.</s>CURNOW: Officials in China are trying to reassure residents from the port city of Qingdao that a recent COVID-19 outbreak out there is under control. Now the small cluster of infections prompted an honest look at mass and rapid testing for millions and millions of people. Selena Wang now reports.</s>SELENA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: China has tested 10 million people for COVID-19 in less than a week for COVID-19. The testing blitz was in response to just a dozen locally transmitted cases that were reported last weekend in Qingdao. This is a northeastern city in China. The clusters linked to two dock workers who were treated at a local hospital. Turns out, the room where they got the CT scans was not disinfected properly, leading to more infections. Two local officials in Qingdao have already been fired over this latest outbreak. Up until this latest flare-up, China had not reported a single locally transmitted case since mid-August. We've seen local officials get removed before, as, well over these outbreaks for instance, in Beijing and Wuhan. China is concerned about even a handful of cases Qingdao, because this is coming right after Chinese Golden Week Holiday where more than a half billion people in China were traveling at the same time. Qingdao is a very popular tourist spot, known for its beaches and beer and, according to government statistics, more than 4 million tourists came to the city during the holiday. The fear was that people may have taken the virus back home with them. We have seen China use this playbook as well before, with clusters found in Beijing and in Wuhan. The city goes into wartime mode, with mass testing, contact tracing and restrictions. For instance, over the summer, when a new cluster of cases was found in Beijing, parts of the city were in lockdown and millions were tested in days.</s>WANG: I actually had to stay home in quarantine for 2 weeks during the outbreak. They set up testing sites across the city but some, people including myself, were tested in their homes by people in hazmat suits. So I was not allowed to leave my home until I tested negative at least twice. In Qingdao, China was able to test so many people at once through something called batch testing. It is a method that combines 10 samples at a time. If any batch turns out positive, all 10 people are quarantined and tested individually. This method is efficient, but some experts have raised questions about its effectiveness. A person can initially test negative, then come back positive days later -- Selena Wang, CNN, Hong Kong.</s>CURNOW: Thank you, Selena, for that. Coming up on CNN, polls are now closing in New Zealand as the country decides the next prime minister. Live report, after the break.