Europe faces a rebound from Covid-19 when the vaccine is expected to backfire

Virus infections and deaths have fallen rapidly in the United States and the United Kingdom since January, as inoculations took off among the elderly and other vulnerable groups. However, in the EU, new cases of Covid-19 have risen again since mid-February. U.S. infections and deaths, which were highest per capita for most of 2020, have fallen below those of the bloc.

In much of the continent, the spread of the most aggressive variant first detected in the UK is behind the worsening pandemic, which undoes intense efforts to curb the virus since the autumn with a series of restrictions that have brought the economic recovery of the block. to a standstill.

Governments and public health experts say only a combination of accelerated vaccinations and a gradual reopening can defeat Covid-19’s latest rebound. But the EU’s efforts continue to slow down in the acquisition and approval of vaccines, delays in the production of vaccine manufacturers and bureaucratic delays in injecting available doses.

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

Despite similar trends in the larger bloc countries, political pressures are eliciting different responses.

Italy, the first Western country to be affected by the pandemic, entered the world’s first national closure on March 10 last year. Now some Italians are starting to joke that they will be the last nation to come out of a closure.

The first major decision by new Prime Minister Mario Draghi, confirmed on Friday, was to close many regions of Italy starting Monday and across the country for Easter.

The decision means bars, restaurants and non-essential shops will close in many regions, while elsewhere they have stricter limits on hours and services offered. The popular movement will be more closely restricted. Millions of students at the school will return to remote learning.

The escalation in Italy comes after weeks of lighter measures failed to stop the rapid rise of the UK variant.

“I thank the citizens once again for their discipline, their infinite patience,” Draghi said earlier this week. His new administration, contributed mainly by his economic experience, is looking for ways to increase vaccine production.

Draghi does not have to worry about re-election: he is a technocratic prime minister who leads an emergency government with the support of almost all parties in Parliament for a year probably.

Elsewhere in the region, electoral pressures are preventing leaders from tightening restrictions despite rising infections and hospitalizations.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who is re-elected next year, has rejected calls from public health experts to impose a third blockade on the country. Instead, he has relied on a nationwide curfew and other restrictions as authorities try 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. Pressure is rising again in the intensive care units of the Paris region, where he said a new patient is admitted every 12 minutes. Veran said he hoped authorities would begin transferring dozens of patients outside the Paris area to hospitals in regions with fewer cases. Across the country, ICUs occupy almost 80%.

“It’s a situation I would describe as tense and troubling,” Veran said.

In Germany, which is preparing for the September national elections, there is little political will to re-impose tougher restrictions, although infections have begun to rise again since early February. Scientists say the UK variant is also behind the rise.

The setback surprised the German government: for weeks, it appeared that the pandemic was receding and state and federal authorities promised to relax the blockade measures. Fearing a public backlash, the German authorities are flattening some measures anyway.

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

Despite frustrations over the restrictions, many question the government’s strategy. Only 30% of Germans trust Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right party competition, while confidence in their center-left coalition partner is in the single digits, according to a poll released this week by the institute. of Forsa opinion polls.

The German press, initially in favor of handling the pandemic by Ms. Merkel has also turned against the government, with publications of the conservative newspaper of the mass market Bild to the left-wing Spiegel that attacked daily the competition of the authorities.

Scientists now fear that the combination of virus variants, snail-rate vaccines and reopening could increase the number of infections. “We see clear signs that the third wave has now begun 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]