With nothing on their agendas for months to come, music festival organizers want to use their know-how to help the country's vaccination campaign.

Germany will probably have to stick with measures to dampen the coronavirus pandemic into January, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday.

Germany is just one European country that has seen a sudden surge in COVID-19 infections, sparking a new wave of restrictions or outright lockdowns.

Coronavirus infections hit a new high this week in Russia, while Germany and the U.K. announced plans to expand virus testing as European nations battled rapidly increasing infections and hospitalizations that strained health care systems.

In Germany, restaurants, bars, theatres, cinemas, gyms and other leisure facilities closed in a four-week "wave-breaker" shutdown.

WHO’s European regional director Dr. Hans Kluge said “hospitalizations have risen to levels unseen since the spring” and deaths have sharply risen by more than 30 per cent.

Nations across Europe enact more sweeping restrictions to try to slow surging infection rates.

Italy, Greece and France have all placed curfews amid the pandemic.

The measures include limits on free movement and the closure of many stores, shopping malls and hotels, which will remain in place until at least Nov 3.

The concept of containing hot spots isn't new, but it's being tested under new pressures as authorities try to avoid a resurgence, this time with weakened economies.