Europe faces a setback in Covid-19 as vaccination recedes

Viral infections and deaths have been declining rapidly in the US and UK since January, as vaccinations among the elderly and other vulnerable groups begin. In the EU, however, new Covid-19 cases have been increasing since mid-February. U.S. infections and deaths, which were higher on a per capita basis for most of 2020, fell below the block.

In much of the continent, the spread of the more aggressive variant first spotted in the UK is behind the worsening pandemic, which undoes unnecessary efforts to curb the virus since the autumn with a variety of constraints brought about by the economic recovery of the bloc. to a standstill.

Governments and public health experts say only a combination of accelerated vaccinations and gradual reopening can defeat the latest setback of Covid-19. But the EU’s efforts continue to suffer from inertia in obtaining and approving vaccines, delaying production at vaccine manufacturers and bureaucratic delays in injecting available doses.

So far, there is nothing like the acute hospital crisis that overwhelmed healthcare systems in parts of Italy and Spain a year ago. Instead, the bloc’s public health crisis has become chronic, with authorities constantly struggling to put out the flames.

Despite similar trends in the larger countries of the bloc, political pressure is leading to different reactions.

Italy, the first Western country to be hit by the pandemic, entered the world’s first rural exclusion on March 10 last year. Now some Italians are starting to joke that they will be the last nation to leave an exclusion.

The first major decision, Mario Draghi, of the new prime minister, which was confirmed on Friday, was to shut down many regions of Italy from Monday and across the country over Easter.

The decision means that pubs, restaurants and non-essential shops will close in many regions, while offering stricter limits and services elsewhere. People’s movement will be more strictly restricted. Millions of schoolchildren go back to distance education.

Italy’s escalation comes after weeks of lighter measures could not stop the rapid rise of the British variant.

“I thank the citizens once again for their discipline, their infinite patience,” he said. Draghi said earlier this week. Its new administration, brought in mainly because of its economic expertise, is rather looking for ways to increase vaccine production.

Mr. Draghi does not have to worry about re-election: he is a technocratic prime minister who is likely to lead an emergency government with almost all parties in parliament for just one year.

Elsewhere in the region, voter pressure is holding back leaders from tightening restrictions despite increasing infections and hospitalizations.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who is up for re-election next year, has rejected calls from public health experts to enforce a third ban on the country. Instead, he relied on a rural curfew rule and other restrictions while authorities tried to speed up vaccinations.

Health Minister Olivier Veran told reporters on Thursday that variants now account for more than 70% of new infections in France. The pressure is increasing again on intensive care units in the Paris region, where he said that a new patient is admitted every 12 minutes. Mr. Veran said he expects authorities to start transferring many patients from the Paris area to hospitals in regions with fewer cases. Nationwide, ICUs are almost 80% full.

“This is a situation that I would qualify as tense and worrying,” he said. Veran said.

In Germany, which is ready for the national elections in September, there is little political will to impose stricter restrictions, even though infections have started to rise again since the beginning of February. Scientists say that the British variant is also behind the rise there.

The setback surprised the German government: for weeks the pandemic seemed to be weakening, and federal and state authorities promised a relaxation of the closure measures. Fearing a public setback, the German authorities at least facilitated some measures.

Hairdressers reopened on March 1. Some state governments have allowed some shops – from bookstores to garden centers – to reopen. Younger children also began to return to classrooms.

Despite frustrations about the restrictions, many question the government’s strategy. Only 30% of Germans rely on the competence of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center – right party, while confidence in her center – left coalition partner is in the single digits, according to a poll released this week by the Forsa polling institute.

The German press, which initially supported her. Merkel’s handling of the pandemic has also turned against the government, with publications from the mass market conservative Bild tabloid to the left-wing Spiegel attacking the powers of the authorities on a daily basis.

Now scientists are afraid that the combination of virus variants, snail rate vaccinations and reopening could cause infection numbers to skyrocket. “We are seeing clear signs that the third wave has now started in Germany,” Lothar Wieler, president of the Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases, told reporters on Thursday. “I’m very worried.”

Write to Marcus Walker at [email protected], Bertrand Benoit at [email protected] and Stacy Meichtry at [email protected]