Europe’s Risk Areas – The Return of the Virus – Politics

Terrible memories have long been awakened. “The intensive care units”, warns Harvard professor Miguel Hernán, “were our last line of defense.” Spain is about to face another serious medical emergency, the Spanish government adviser said on Twitter. Doctors from 62 hospitals in Madrid also addressed the public this week: scenes like those in March could soon be repeated. No country in Western Europe is being as affected by the second wave of the pandemic as Spain. Unlike Italy, where a similar number of people died in the spring, the number of cases in Spain is now higher than it was then. The Health Ministry reports around 9,000 new cases every day and more than 500 people have died in the last seven days.

Not long ago it seemed like a sigh of relief. During the summer, the number of infected people increased steadily, but not the death toll, which may be due to the fact that it was mainly the younger people who were infected, who had to wait for milder courses. Now, however, the virus may have found its way back to older and more vulnerable groups and the death toll has skyrocketed. According to an investigation by the newspaper The country 95 percent of intensive care beds in Madrid are occupied by Covid patients, and operating rooms have already been converted into intensive care units in some public hospitals.

The capital is considered to be the driving force behind the second wave in the country. Specifically, in the poorest neighborhoods in the south of Madrid, many people live in a small area, the number of cases there has long since exceeded 1,000 infected people per 100,000 inhabitants. The conservative regional president of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, had to react: a partial blockade has been in effect in 37 areas of the capital region since Monday.

The opposition and many health experts criticize this as too late and insufficient. In fact, it is difficult to impose restrictions on individual districts, while residents of the surrounding streets can move freely to a large extent. In addition, the approximately 850,000 residents of the affected areas can still leave them to take the often crowded buses or the subway to go to work, school or to the doctor.

However, Díaz Ayuso wants to dispense with the closure of the entire capital. A full curfew would be too bad for the economy, he believes. In spring, he harshly criticized the national shutdown of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. In the end, however, Díaz Ayuso had to take a step toward Sánchez, gritting his teeth. Pressured by her own authorities, she asked soldiers, police and doctors for help.

France

In France, the government had been optimistic for a long time. You have to “live with the virus,” said President Emmanuel Macron when he visited the Tour de France last week. The president showed us how to do it: put on the mask, sanitize your hands, and have fun. The fun is over for a while. Health Minister Olivier Véran showed the new virus mapping on Wednesday night. After the curfew ended in May, France was divided into green, orange and red zones. Now you can do without green and orange. There is only red, reddest and reddest of all. The latest figures: 13,072 corona infections in 24 hours. Marseille was particularly affected. The infection rate exceeds 250 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. There the “maximum alert level” applies, in Paris the maximum alert level. Marseille bars and restaurants must close on Saturdays, initially for 14 days. In Paris and other major cities, they can only open until 10pm

There was little protest or resistance to the curfew in March, but the new restrictions immediately led to a dispute. The green mayor of Marseille, Michèle Rubirola, immediately tweeted her anger to the world. The steps have not been agreed with her, she demands a delay of ten days. The mayor of Paris, the socialist Anne Hidalgo, also complained about the lack of agreements with the government. The measures are “very strict” and “difficult to understand”.

The unusually heated dispute between the government and the country’s two largest cities contradicts Macron’s promise from the summer that the regions would bear more responsibility in fighting the pandemic. The rapid rise in infections also shows that the government’s testing strategy has failed. Macron had announced one million crown tests per week. Although this number has been reached, it takes an average of more than 48 hours, often a week, until a result is available. Tracking the contacts of an infected person doesn’t work either. And the official Corona app has to be called a failure. Only four percent of citizens downloaded it.

Czech Republic

On August 31, the prime minister seemed very confident. At an international forum in Bled, Slovenia, Andrej Babiš said: “We are the best at Covid.” Less than four weeks later, the Czech Republic is one of the countries in Europe where the virus is spreading the fastest. More than 2,000 people are infected every day in the country of just under eleven million inhabitants, the other day it was even more than 3,000. The crisis of the Crown threatens to turn into a crisis of prime minister.

Health Minister Adam Vojtěch resigned on Monday. A pawn sacrifice, the media wrote. From the point of view of the opposition, it was Babiš who created chaos and confusion. “Now he has to let the health minister speak and hold back,” says Olga Richterová, vice president of the pirates party. They are the third strongest force in parliament and are currently outperforming all opposition parties in polls. They finally got the crisis team back to work. “Our plan for a second wave has been in place since June, but Babiš preferred to talk about other issues.”

The new Health Minister, Roman Prymula, as chief epidemiologist, led the Czech Republic through the start of the pandemic. The Czech Republic reacted with extremely strict measures, declared a national emergency on March 12 and closed all borders. Six days later, a general mask requirement went into effect, including outdoors. When the Czech Republic reopened its borders in late May, only 8,955 people were infected. In the summer all measures were lifted, including the mask requirement. Now the number of infected people has risen to more than 55,000, there are more sick people than those who have recovered. “There were almost no reports of severe advances in our country,” says Richterová. Maybe that made people careless. The new health minister’s orders are light: taverns and bars have to close at 10 p.m., but events with up to 1,000 people remain inside.

Austria

Health Minister Rudi Anschober had already thought about it two weeks ago at ORF, but the specific announcement came as a shock to the tourism nation: yes, ski, après-ski just sitting. There are no wild parties, no dancing to loud pop music; Unfortunately, according to Minister Elisabeth Köstinger, winter tourism is about more than winter sports. What else is involved becomes increasingly clear to Austrians with each day that more than 800 new infected people are reported. You have to turn many levers for the industry, which is so important to the country, to survive. The federal states in the west have brought a curfew, even outdoors you can only eat sitting down, at ski schools there are maximum group sizes, on cable cars it is mandatory to wear a mask. The ball season has been canceled, tests, rehearsals and tests will be carried out everywhere to avoid the “crown crash” of tourism that is forecast in the Austrian media. But the panic increases, the bad news increases. Germany and Belgium have declared Vienna and now Vorarlberg a risk zone, and the Belgians also have Tyrol on the red list. Tourism represents 15 percent of the country’s economic production.

In the government and parliament, mutual accusations began long ago. In the spring, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz was able to enjoy positive reports across Europe that his coalition had handled the first corona wave well. Now there is criticism everywhere: too many restrictions lifted too early, chaotic crisis communication, sloppy laws, too late a reaction to the second wave. Little offended a few days ago, he himself had “wanted to tighten the measures” before, but it was not his “only decision.” That was not well received by the Green coalition partner, and the dispute is growing among conservative politicians as well. Lower Austrian Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner said on Wednesday in a visible bad mood that when it comes to a crisis like this, unity and clarity are demanded, also at the federal level. The citizens also demanded it.