Europe's reported coronavirus cases more than doubled in 10 days and crossed 200,000 daily infections for the first time on Thursday, according to a Reuters tally.

Europe reported 100,000 daily cases for the first time on October 12. As a region, it is reporting more daily cases than India, Brazil and the United States combined. The increase is partly explained by far more testing than was done during the first wave of the pandemic.

Record daily tally in Germany and France

Both Germany and France, two heavyweights of the European Union (EU), saw their COVID-19 infections within one day hit new highs on Thursday. A day earlier, Britain, Poland, the Netherlands, Austria, Croatia and Lithuania also reported daily records.

Germany's Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the federal government agency for disease control and prevention, announced on Thursday that COVID-19 infections in the country increased by a record 11,287 within one day, pushing the total to 392,049.

"The situation overall has become very serious," said Lothar Wieler, RKI president. "At present, we still have a chance to slow down the further spread of the virus."

The situation in France is also worrisome. The country's Public Health Agency on Thursday evening reported 41,661 new COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours, a new record after Saturday's 32,427. The cumulative total infections now stand at 999,043.

Restrictions including more curfews underway

European nations have or will put in place more targeted and stricter measures, including more curfews.

"If we fail to stop the pandemic, we will be facing a dire situation and we will have to envisage much tougher measures," Castex added.

In Greece, a curfew has been imposed from 12:30 a.m. until 5:00 a.m. and the use of face masks will be mandatory everywhere indoors and outdoors in areas with a heavy epidemiological load classified as a level 3 alert and the maximum 4 on the authorities' COVID-19 monitoring map, said Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

And the UK, Ireland and other nations have extended their restrictions in a bid to contain the spread of the pandemic.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the current restrictions, which put Greater Manchester at tier 3 restrictions, are working and that the virus reproduction number, known as the R number, is half its "natural rate."

Meanwhile, Ireland was placed under a nationwide lockdown again starting from Thursday due to a resurgence of COVID-19 cases.

(With input from agencies)