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A new wave of Covid-19 infections is spreading across Europe, threatening a new round of restrictions to cope with rising hospitalizations and deaths as vaccine supply problems and irregular launches hamper drug campaigns. inoculation.
Coronavirus infections have risen across the region for three weeks in a row, with more people now dying from the disease in Europe than a year ago, the World Health Organization warned this week.
The focal point of the resurgence is in the central European states, the Balkans and the Baltic, where illness and hospitalization rates are “now among the highest in the world,” said the organization’s regional director Hans Kluge.
There are signs that new, more infectious variants are driving the rise, with the highly contagious variant that first emerged in Britain now accounts for 60 percent of cases in the worst-hit Poland and is on the rise, the Polish government announced on Friday. . It came as the country of 38 million reported 27,278 new coronavirus cases in one day, a record for 2021.
Infections are in or near the worst condition in countries such as Norway, Finland, Estonia, Moldova, Bulgaria, and Hungary.
The highly contagious B.1.1.7 variant that first emerged in Britain and contributed to Ireland’s Christmas surge is becoming the “predominant” strain across the region, the WHO warned.
However, Ireland is among the countries that have managed to reduce infections despite the infectiousness of the strain, along with Portugal and the United Kingdom.
“We are seeing the numbers start to increase. Everyone is beginning to have justified hope in vaccines, “said WHO chief of emergencies Dr. Mike Ryan. “But now is not the time to give in, now is not the time to relax, or many of us will be locked in again.”
Restrictions
With infections on the rise, several governments are reluctantly extending lockdowns or facing the prospect of imposing new restrictions.
“The increasing number of cases may mean that we cannot take further opening steps in the coming weeks. On the contrary, we may even have to take steps backwards, ”German Health Minister Jens Spahn told reporters to dampen hopes that restrictions will be lowered.
A pledge by French President Emmanuel Macron earlier this year to emerge from the pandemic without a new national lockdown is now cracking under pressure from a new surge in infections and the overflow of intensive care units in parts of France, while Italy preparing to stay on home orders for Easter weekend.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex is vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine at L’hôpital d’Instruction des Armées Begin in Saint-Mande, Paris, on Friday. Photograph: Thomas Coex / Getty Images
In the Netherlands, where there is an overnight curfew, authorities are grappling with the possibility of extending or easing restrictions after the largest increase in infections since January came this week, in addition to a rising rate of hospitalizations.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, Prime Minister Denys Shmygal told local authorities not to wait for national orders, but to impose stricter restrictions to respond to the surge in cases after a record number of 4,887 people were hospitalized with Covid-19. on Tuesday.
“The situation with the coronavirus is disappointing, there are many hospitalizations and serious cases. New strains spread rapidly and lead to more dire consequences, ”he told a televised government meeting.
“A local government has the right to increase restrictions and therefore I urge local authorities not to wait for instructions, but to make the necessary decisions – if they see an increase in the number of sick people, the number of hospitalized – enter restrictions “.
Vaccines
The launch rate of vaccines in the EU has been severely affected by the severe shortage of deliveries from the British-Swedish multinational AstraZeneca, which will provide only 30 million doses instead of the 90 million that had been contracted to supply between January and March.
National leaders are ready to discuss whether to make EU vaccine exports to third countries dependent on whether recipients also allow the shipment of injections and ingredients.
The bloc has exported more than 40 percent of locally manufactured vaccines since February, making it the world’s top producer even as supplies dwindled in the country, with most of it going to the UK and some to the US. , which has blocked exports in the other direction.
Vaccination rates across the continent vary by local organization and national decisions during the EU procurement process last year to reject Pfizer and Moderna doses in favor of cheaper AstraZeneca injections.
Bulgaria and Latvia have delivered enough coups to cover only about five out of every 100 people in their population, according to figures compiled by Our World in Data, while Estonia, Lithuania and Denmark have three times that rate.
Malta’s small population of 500,000 and the purchase of additional jabs that other EU countries had decreased have made it a leader in the bloc, with 30 doses per 100 compared to 40 in the UK.
Nearly a dozen countries resumed administration of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine on Friday after pausing for a European Medicines Agency review of blood clotting cases that concluded the vaccine is safe and effective. However, Denmark and Sweden said they needed more time to make a decision, while France’s medical regulator chose to restrict the vaccine to people over 55.
“We are making progress,” said the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
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