ROME (AP) – Tighter restrictions were imposed on Monday to curb growing coronavirus infection in much of Italy and parts of Poland, while in France, Paris runs the risk of suffering a headache of the week as the ICUs are almost saturated with COVID-19 patients.
According to a decision by the Italian government late last week, 80% of schoolchildren, from kindergarten to high school, were locked out of the classroom as of Monday. An increasing number of ICU beds occupied by COVID-19 patients, a constantly increasing number of daily cases and a transmission of infections caused mainly by a virus variant first discovered in Britain have been combined to make the new government of Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi apply the designation of “red zone” to more regions, including, for the first time since the creation of the color level system last fall, in Lazio, the region included Rome.
In red zone areas, restaurants and cafes can only be taken away or taken away, non-essential shops are closed and residents must stay close to home, except for work, health or purchase of basic necessities. Over the weekend, many hair salons extended opening hours to cater to last-minute customers and crowds filled with shopping streets, parks and boardwalks before the crackdown took effect.
On Monday, reality sank.
In a country, where coffee is properly drunk, on a coffee table or table, and not in a paper cup to take away, Alessandra Lorisa took off her mask and drank hers in a square in Rome. “By now it has become part of our routine,” he said. “It’s much more American, if we can say so,” he added, expressing his hope that after Easter “we can see some improvements to get back to the routines we were used to.”
On Friday Draghi promised a quick infusion of aid for pandemics to closed companies.
Beyond the commercial aspects, parents expressed concern about children excluded from classrooms. “Now they have little interaction with their friends, they have to celebrate their birthdays alone,” Marco Pacciani said as he walked through a park in Rome with his young son.
In Poland, amid a sharp rise in the number of new infections and hospitalized COVID-19 patients, restrictions tightened in two more regions, including the capital, Warsaw, and a western province bordering Germany. Two other provinces already had restrictions.
Under the highest measures, hotels and shopping malls must remain closed, as well as theaters, cinemas, gyms and sports facilities. Schoolchildren ages 6 to 9 will have a combination of classroom and remote instruction.
An inexorable increase in the number of patients treated in the ICUs of French hospitals, especially in the Paris region, increases the pressure on the government of President Emmanuel Macron. As elsewhere in Europe, virus variants are suspected to increase cases in severe cases in France. The Macron government has been trying to prevent another nationwide punishment shutdown in 2021, instead of opting for a nationwide curfew from 6pm to 6am.
It is expected to be decided in a few days whether the Paris region and its 12 million inhabitants will be closed on weekends.
Last week, the countries of the Western Balkans announced a tightening of measures amid an increase in cases in Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro.
When they received their first vaccines on Wednesday, doctors in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, warned that the virus had exploded in recent days. Bars, restaurants and non-essential shops in the canton of Sarajevo will be closed over the next weekend.
In Serbia, Prime Minister Ana Brnabic criticized the holding in the last days of two concerts by a popular band in a hall in Belgrade. The country of 7 million has vaccinated more than 1.5 million people, which is among the highest rates in Europe.
On the western edge of the continent, Portugal stood out as an atypical value. It emerged on Monday from a two-month pandemic blockade, with the country gradually reopening over the next seven weeks, with the exception of setbacks.
Elementary and nursery schools, hairdressers and bookstores were among the places that reopened on Monday. Prime Minister António Costa said in a tweet on Monday that the process must be “very prudent, gradual and partial”.
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PA reporters from across Europe contributed to this report.