LONDON (AP) – Despite increasing access to vaccines, January looks grim around the world as the coronavirus redevelops and reforms itself from Britain to Japan to California, filling hospitals and threatening livelihoods again as governments close businesses and race to find solutions.
England are back in the lock. Mexico City’s hospitals contain more virus patients than ever before. Germany reported one of its highest daily death toll to date on Tuesday. South Africa and Brazil are struggling to find a place for the dead. Even the pandemic success story Thailand fights an unexpected wave of infections.
And as doctors face or oversee the growing number of COVID-19 patients after the annual meetings, more and more countries are reporting cases of a new, more contagious variant that has already swept across Britain.
January is going to be ‘difficult’, said dr. Margaret Harris, a spokeswoman for the World Health Organization, said. ‘It looks like it’ Ah, we’re all sick of it. We want to look at something else. Oh, it does not apply to me ‘… it must disappear. That’s really all on the deck. ‘
While Britain is rolling out a second vaccine this week and some US states are starting to give the second shot, access to vaccinations worldwide is sharply unequal. The supply is not very close to the epic demand needed to defeat an enemy that has already killed more than 1.85 million people.
“We are in a race to prevent infections, bring down cases, protect health systems and save lives while deploying two highly effective and safe vaccines to high-risk populations,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. ‘It is not easy. These are the hard miles. ”
England faces a third national exclusion lasting at least six weeks, as authorities struggle to stem the rise in COVID-19 infections and alleviate hospitals, where some patients wait in ambulances in a car park for access to overcrowded wards.
Premier Boris Johnson has announced the difficult new home order for England, which takes effect at midnight on Tuesday. It closes schools, restaurants and all non-essential shops and will only be reviewed at least mid-February. Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon has instituted a closure that began on Tuesday.
The two leaders said the restrictions needed to protect the national health service amid the emergence of the new variant that raises daily infections, hospitalizations and deaths.
The NHS “is probably going through the most difficult time in memory,” said Siva Anandaciva, chief analyst at the King Tank Fund think tank.
Elsewhere in Europe, Italy and Germany extended their lock-in periods during the Christmas season, restricting travel to Spain, and Denmark reduced the number of people who can meet in public from 10 to five. France is likely to announce stricter measures on Thursday, and Ukraine will close schools and restaurants from Friday.
In Latin America, some warn that the worst is yet to come.
“The boost we are experiencing here in Brazil is much more serious than what happened months ago,” said Domingos Alves, an assistant professor at the University of Sao Paulo.
The number of patients in Brazil in intensive care has reached its highest level since August, just as the country reopened shops and offices after the end of the annual holiday – and the vast country has still not approved or received any vaccines. Some Brazilian hospitals have reintroduced coolers outside to keep the bodies of COVID-19 victims.
The capital of Mexico has more virus patients than at any stage in the pandemic and flies in doctors from less severely affected states. The beach resorts are ready for more cases after thousands of American and European tourists visited during the holidays.
“Probably in the third week of January we are going to see the system more emphasized that there will be more outpatient cases and cases that require hospitalization,” said Dr. Mauricio Rodriguez of the National Autonomous University of Mexico said. He blames the increase in fatigue with social distance, mixed messages from public figures and Mexicans who dropped their guard during the holidays.
Zimbabwe has once again imposed a curfew, banned public gatherings and suspended the opening of schools indefinitely. In South Africa, which is still seeing a rapid spread of the virus, the continent’s country is the hardest hit, authorities reintroduced an evening clock, banned liquor sales and closed most beaches.
South Africa’s funeral directors are struggling to cope with the increase in deaths, the national funeral practitioners’ association of SA president Muzi Hlengwa told state broadcaster SABC.
“It’s something you’ve never seen before. “Our coffins ran out, the space ran out at the morgue,” he said. “We normally have cremations during the day, but now we have cremations even at night.”
The pandemic even reaches countries that appear to be under the control of the virus.
Thailand is facing a boom that has infected thousands of people over the past few weeks, blaming complacency and poor planning. The government is arresting large parts of the country, including the capital Bangkok, and is considering stricter measures.
Japan is preparing to declare a state of emergency this week, increasing border controls and speeding up vaccine approval following a resurgence of cases around New Year’s Eve.
And the worry of holidays is not over now that 2021 has arrived.
Pope Francis has abandoned an annual ritual of infant baptism in the Sistine Chapel in connection with Wednesday’s Epiphany holiday. Orthodox Christian countries such as Russia and Greece may experience more infections after celebrating Christmas on Thursday. And China is closing schools early before next month’s New Year’s holiday, telling migrant workers not to go home and tourists to avoid Beijing.
Vaccinations start slowly in many places. In the US, where more than 350,000 people have died, some states are struggling to get enough shots and arrange vaccinations. The Netherlands has come under heavy criticism for being the last European Union to start vaccinations, who will do so on Wednesday. Australia does not plan to do so until March. And most poorer countries are even further behind.
Opposition politician Geert Wilders calls the Dutch government ‘the town idiot of Europe’.
Yet India offers some hope. The infection rate is significantly lower than a peak in September and the country is launching one of the largest vaccination programs in the world, aiming to vaccinate 300 million people by August.
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AP reporters around the world contributed.
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