Warning signs flashed on Saturday that the pandemic has entered a dangerous phase across Europe, with several countries shattering daily infection records and uncertainty mounting about how the continent will battle its worst outbreak to date.

Deaths from the coronavirus in Germany surpassed 10,000 on Saturday, a disconcerting milestone in a country that has been widely admired for its ability to manage the pandemic.

The number of new infections in a 24-hour period also reached a record level — 14,714 — although the country’s public health authority said that some of those cases should have been factored in earlier in the week but had not been because of technical issues.

Officials in Poland announced on Saturday that President Andrzej Duda had tested positive for the coronavirus at a time when the country’s de facto leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, was already in self-isolation after coming into contact with somebody earlier in the week who was infected.

The Belgian government, alarmed by the quickening pace of infections in the country of 11 million — the second-worst in Europe behind the Czech Republic — inched closer to a total lockdown with a spate of new restrictions on daily life. Officials moved up by two hours a curfew put in place last week, to 10pm instead of midnight, for the next month, and required that all cultural and fitness venues such as gyms, pools, galleries and museums shut down. Commercial stores will be required to close at 8pm.

On Friday, several other countries, including France and Italy, recorded single-day records for new infections, according to data compiled by The New York Times. And the surge of new cases across the continent has pushed hospitalisations to alarming levels in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

France, after months of falling numbers of patients in intensive care, is now facing a second wave. It has recorded over one million cases and set a single-day record on Friday with 42,032 new cases.