Germany became the latest European country to embark on a partial shutdown on Monday as authorities across the continent scramble to flatten a rapid rise in novel coronavirus infections that threatens to overwhelm their health care systems.

In Germany, restaurants, bars, theatres, cinemas, gyms and other leisure facilities closed again Monday in a four-week "wave-breaker" shutdown that seeks to force daily new infections back down to manageable levels. Germans have been asked not to travel and hotels are barred from accommodating tourists.