Optimism is spreading in the United States as deaths from COVID-19 plummet and states ease restrictions and open vaccinations to younger adults. But across Europe, fear is set in with another wave of infections that closes schools and cafes and causes new blockades.
The divergent paths of the pandemic on the two continents may be related in part to the much more successful vaccine deployment in the US and the spread of more contagious variants in Europe.
However, U.S. health experts say what is happening in Europe should serve as a warning against ignoring social distancing or abandoning other guarantees too soon.
“Each of these countries has had nirs like the ones we have now, and each has taken an upward trend after ignoring known mitigation strategies,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Control and Prevention. of Diseases of the United States. “They just took their eyes off the ball.”
The result has been a sharp rise in new infections and hospitalizations in several European countries in recent weeks.
The percentage of new cases of COVID-19 in Poland has doubled more than since February, which hampered its health system and led to a three-week national closure announced Wednesday for shopping malls, theaters, galleries and sports centers.
Italy closed most of its classrooms earlier this week and the expanded areas where restaurants and cafes can only take away or deliver. Health experts in the country say they see a growing number of middle-aged and young patients.
In France, officials imposed weekend closures around the Côte d’Azur in the south and the English Channel in the north and are preparing new restrictions for the Paris region and perhaps beyond to be announced on Thursday.
COVID-19 patients occupy 100% of the standard intensive care hospital beds in the area surrounding the country’s capital.
“If we do nothing, we are heading for a catastrophe,” Remi Salomon, head of authority at the Paris Public Hospital, told BFM television.
Serbia announced a nationwide closure for the rest of the week, closing all non-essential stores and businesses. The country of 7 million people reported more than 5,000 new cases on Tuesday, the highest number in months.
The trends are much more encouraging in the United States, which has recorded some 537,000 deaths overall, more than any other country.
Deaths per day in the United States have dropped to an average of just under 1,300, below the high of about 3,400 ago. New cases average about 55,000 a day after reaching a maximum of more than a quarter of a million a day in early January.
An empty hallway and a row of unused face shields inside the closed ICU COVID-19 unit at Mission Viejo Mission Hospital, California, tell the story of improved perspective in the U.S.
The wing was full of patients at the beginning of the year.
“It gives me goosebumps. It’s really surreal because, you know, a month and a half ago, our unit was full of super sick COVID patients, many of whom didn’t survive, ”said ICU nurse Christina Anderson.
The European Union’s global vaccination efforts are far behind those in Britain and the United States due to scarcity and other obstacles. Approximately 1 in 5 people in the US has received at least one dose, while in most European countries it is less than 1 in 10.
In another worrying turn, many European countries, including Germany, France, Spain and Italy, have suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine. on reports of dangerous blood clots in a small number of receptors, although regulators say there is no evidence that the culprit is the culprit.
European nations have not been vaccinated fast enough to stay ahead of the most contagious variants, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security Center in Baltimore, Maryland. These variants are also being imposed in the US
“Vaccination without a speed limit, 24/7, is what will protect us from what is happening in Europe,” Adalja said.
He thinks it’s too early for states to abandon mask mandates, but it’s okay to allow restaurants and other places to gradually increase capacity.
“You don’t have to do what Texas did,” Adalja said. “You can increase the capacity by keeping the masks in place.”
Texas and a few more states have lifted state mask requirements or plan to do so soon, while governors in more than half of the states have decided to ease other restrictions in the coming weeks on restaurants, gyms and movie theaters.
Disneyland, Southern California, announced that it will reopen with limited crowds in late April for the first time since the pandemic began. And airlines have had the best weeks since the crisis began and say there are more people booking flights for spring and summer.
Amelia Fowler, among a string of people who were shot Wednesday at Medgar Evers College in New York City, awaits grocery shopping and returns to normal routine in her acting job after a dark year.
“It was literally terror: terror coming out of the house, terror coming down the street, terror dealing with other people, and terror has been removed,” he said.
Yusuf Lamont, who received his second dose, worries that the threat is not over and said, “This is not the time to start whipping masks and dancing.”
“There’s a false sense of security, because the numbers are going down and people are getting vaccinated. It’s like, ‘Oh, it’s safe to do anything.’ No, it’s a big country. There are 330 million people.” to say.
Josh Michaud, associate director of global health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington, said optimism in the United States should come with caution.
“Europe’s rapid relaxation of distance requirements in many places, combined with populations dropping their guard as they look at the light at the end of the long pandemic tunnel, helped set the stage for current floods.” , he said.
The lesson for the United States, he said, is to continue vaccinating those at risk as quickly as possible, monitor variants, and “stay slow and steady with declining social distancing requirements.”
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Associated Press video journalist Eugene Garcia in California, reporter Thalia Beaty in New York, and AP reporters from across Europe contributed to this report.