'Overwhelmed': Germany, France return to lockdown as virus cases soar in Europe

London: Europe is bracing for a new spate of national lockdowns as COVID-19 surges across the continent and threatens to fill hospitals with more patients than the first deadly wave of earlier this year.

In an address to the nation, Macron said France had been "overwhelmed" and warned the second wave would kill more people over winter than 30,000 who died in the spring.

"We know that this second wave will be even harder and more lethal than the first.

There is rising panic in Europe about the crisis and a growing view that while the second wave won't peak as sharply, it will last longer than the first and ultimately claim more lives.

The disease is proving less fatal than earlier this year but deaths are still climbing rapidly.

Hospitals are so busy in Belgium that some frontline health workers have been asked to stay on the job even though they are infected with the disease.

In Britain, the Sun newspaper reported that fresh government modelling has suggested more than 25,000 people will be in hospital with the disease in Britain by the end of November.

"Coronavirus cases and hospitalised patients are rising sharply and in some parts of the country, including Liverpool, Lancashire and Nottingham, hospitals are now treating more COVID-19 patients than at the peak of the pandemic in April," said Professor Stephen Powis, the national medical director for the National Health Service.

An earlier version of this story calculated the number of infections in Melbourne per 100,000 people based on the average daily number of cases over 14 days