France goes into second Covid lockdown

France will be plunged into a second Covid lockdown on Friday after Emmanuel Macron said Europe was being "overrun" by a second wave of coronavirus that would be "harder, more deadly than the first."

The French president ordered the closure of non-essential shops, along with bars and restaurants, and people must stay at home unless they have documentation showing why they need to go to work or make other journeys.

Britons will be banned from entering the country unless they have a signed certificate saying why they need to travel.

"The virus is circulating at a speed that not even the most pessimistic forecasts had anticipated," Mr Macron said. "Like all our neighbours, we are submerged by the sudden acceleration of the virus. We are all in the same position."

Germany also announced new national lockdowns despite both it and France recording fewer daily Covid deaths than Britain.

The FTSE 100 Index plunged 2.6 per cent on Wednesday amid news of the new lockdowns, wiping £37.3 billion off the value of Britain's biggest companies, as European stock markets slumped to their lowest levels since May.

On Wednesday, Boris Johnson toughened the restrictions in the highest of England's three tiers in the hope he can avoid national restrictions and save the traditional family Christmas.

The Prime Minister – who was accused of waiting too long before imposing a national lockdown in March – is already under pressure from Labour to impose a national "circuit-breaker" but has insisted it is not necessary.

On Wednesday night, senior Tories urged him to protect the economy rather than following Europe's lead.

In Germany, Angela Merkel, the chancellor, ordered the closure of bars, restaurants, cinemas, theatres, gyms and hotels from Monday, along with contact and travel restrictions.

The 14-day infection rate per 100,000 people stands at 659 in France, 424 in the UK and 156 in Germany, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Mr Johnson will hold meetings with ministers this week to decide whether regional lockdowns are necessary in November after his scientific advisers predicted that 85,000 people could die in the UK during the second wave of the virus – twice as many as in the original spike.

A longer, flatter peak could continue through Christmas and even into March, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) has said in its "worst case scenario" modelling.

On Friday, Nottinghamshire will be placed into the harshest restrictions in England since the spring as it adopts what has been described as"Tier 3 plus".

On top of the restrictions placed on other Tier 3 regions, such as the closure of pubs and a ban on household mixing, off-licence sales of alcohol will be banned after 9pm and nail and tanning salons must close, together with betting shops, car boot sales and auction houses.

Ministers have not ruled out bringing in a much stricter "Tier 4", akin to regional lockdowns, if people fail to comply with local rules.

But while Mr Macron said France's lockdown would end once infections had fallen below 5,000 a day, Mr Johnson has not published any form of exit strategy.

The latest results from Imperial College London's React surveillance survey suggest the 'R' rate is now around 1.6 – with anything above one meaning an exponential rise – and the pandemic has reached a "critical stage", with infections doubling every nine days.

Scientists warned that areas in the South were now just a few weeks behind the North, with London's 'R' rate rising to 2.86. Nearly one million people are now thought to be infected in Britain, with an estimated 96,000 new cases each day. Prevalence is highest in Yorkshire and the Humber, where more than one in 40 people are now infected.

Mr Macron is putting France back into lockdown after it recorded a new high in daily infections of 36,437 cases, with 244 deaths.

Non-essential shops, bars and restaurants will shut and travel between different regions will be banned. The president said another 400,000 people could die in France if no action was taken. The measures will stay in place for at least a month, but schools will remain open throughout.

Germany recorded 14,964 coronavirus cases on Wednesday – its highest daily figure in the country since the pandemic began and a doubling of cases in just a week – along with 85 deaths.

Britain, which has a smaller population than France or Germany, recorded 24,701 new cases – the second-highest on record – and 310 deaths.

Mrs Merkel will impose tough new measures on Germany for a month, starting on Monday, in the hope that infection rates will come down in time to rescue Christmas. "We must break the wave of infection. We have to act now," she said, adding that Germany's test and trace system has been overwhelmed, as the source of infection cannot be traced in 75 per cent of cases .

Mrs Merkel said that without a fully functioning test and trace system local lockdowns do not work because "one cannot say any more that a certain area doesn't contribute at all to infections".

With similar or higher rates of infection in Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, more lockdowns are expected to follow. Italy reported a record high of nearly 25,000 new coronavirus infections, heightening concerns that it too could be heading for a second lockdown, while Switzerland imposed tighter restrictions from Thursday.

Tobias Ellwood, the chairman of the defence select committee, urged Mr Johnson to show that the UK "has the resolve to keep our country open", saying: "We are in a different place now, with better medicines and an improved national mindset and a greater resolve and ambition.

"In order to keep our economy open we should be looking for a more cognitive approach that puts those previous lessons learnt in place."

The former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith said: "We must avoid a national lockdown. Our economy will collapse and people will suffer. Without a growing and functional economy health services will falter and the quality of our lives will plunge."