Europe’s virus numbers appear to be they did within the spring: excessive and getting increased.

As infection rates in Brussels, the Belgian capital, where the European Union’s headquarters are located, rise to the highest in Europe, the physical meetings will be reduced to the bare minimum, according to a spokesman for the German delegation holding the rotating presidency Blocks.

Spain and Italy extended restrictions this weekend to avoid second suspensions. Spain is in a new state of emergency and Italy is tightening restrictions on bars, restaurants and gyms again.

The new Spanish Declaration set few nationwide rules and instead gave regions far more leeway to take their own action. In the Catalonia region, Meritxell Budó, a member of the regional government, said Monday that the Catalans could soon be forced to stay indoors on weekends, which would mean a significant extension of the nightly curfew announced by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Sunday.

In the UK, the number of virus hospitalizations has doubled in the past two weeks, although it is only about 33 percent of its spring peak last week, according to the European Center for Disease and Control.

Ms. Merkel will meet with her governors at the end of the week to see if Germany will introduce new rules. “We are facing very, very difficult months,” she said according to the daily Bild in a phone call with party colleagues on Sunday evening. On Monday, Ms. Merkel’s party canceled a leadership conference planned for December. The Bavarian district of Rottal-Inn will also be closed after 260 cases for 100,000 people were registered in one week. Not only are schools, day care centers, restaurants and museums closed, people are also not allowed to leave their homes without a reason. The lockdown, which follows another in a Bavarian district last week, will initially last 10 days.

Around 2,000 protesters gathered in Berlin on Sunday to demonstrate against the rules imposed by the government to keep infections at bay. Early on Sunday morning, security staff stopped vandals who had thrown Molotov cocktails at the Robert Koch Institute, the federal agency for monitoring infections.

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