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French President Emmanuel Macron, whose government has diligently avoided public debate on the national quarantine following a recent spike in coronavirus cases, landed on Friday, acknowledging that the country may need to return to broader restrictions on movement.
Like other leaders in the region, Macron lacked choice. Officials in various parts of the region, from Dublin to Prague, in the face of a resurgent pandemic, are working to curb the spread of the virus by more lenient means, from the mandatory wearing of masks to a partial curfew.
The political influence of Giuseppe Conte from Italy and Angela Merkel from Germany is at stake. While both are praised for successfully controlling the first wave of the virus, more and more criticism of its direction is now being heard. People are tired, fragmentation between local and national governments is increasing, and if a long quarantine becomes the only answer, they will be blamed for the economic collapse.
The new wave of coronavirus is different from the first. The number of cases appears to be much higher, France announced a record number of new infections on Sunday, but more cases are being identified as testing increases. Meanwhile, mortality, although much lower than in the spring, is already increasing, as is the flow of patients needing hospitalization.
As tensions gradually mount in the healthcare segment, one simple measure remains: shut down the economy and tell people to stay home.
“Politicians have tough decisions to make,” Jean-Francois Delfraissy, the chief physician who advises the French government on the pandemic, told RTL Radio. – This second wave is likely to be stronger than the first. It is already wreaking havoc across Europe. “
Many Europeans, who have already survived the quarantine introduced in the spring, strongly oppose the second. Protesters in cities such as London, Naples and Berlin organized protests over the weekend against the pandemic “tyranny”. In Italy, some sports clubs and cinemas disobeyed instructions to close their doors to visitors.
The situation is compounded by the fact that even drastic measures do not alleviate the situation in an instant. Despite calls for a strict two-week quarantine in the UK, spring data shows that it took four weeks for March 23. the publication of a “stay at home” order would begin to yield tangible results.
The number of hospitalized patients in France increased almost a month after the introduction of the national quarantine on March 17. After that, it began to slowly sink.
© Zuma Press / Scanpix
“This is a dangerous time for many countries in the Northern Hemisphere,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), told a health conference on Sunday. “But we see time and again that the decision to take urgent and appropriate action ensures that the outbreak can be controlled.”
Some governments are willing to announce tougher measures. Belgium is considering quarantine. Poland and the Czech Republic, the worst affected European country, have warned that further restrictions may be necessary in the near future. Ireland shut down the economy for six weeks.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who recently called for more urgent measures to combat the pandemic, resumed meeting with land leaders on new measures on Wednesday, two days earlier. The Bild reported that the country would go into “soft quarantine” restrictions on restaurants, bars and events, but most schools would remain open.
In Spain, the central government has announced plans to grant the country’s regions broad powers to issue quarantines, movement restrictions, and curfews. The move is aimed at shifting some unpopular measures to local government and avoiding pressuring national demands, as was somewhat the case earlier this year.
Taking more decisive local action to curb outbreaks at this stage is a good idea, says Azeem Majeed, professor of primary care and public health at Imperial College London.
“The government is reluctant to release budgetary resources at the local level,” Majeed said. “They prefer a more centralized model, which unfortunately doesn’t work that well.”
Hospitals appear to be less prepared to face the challenges, partly because surgeries that were postponed seven months ago can no longer be postponed again, and partly because more doctors and nurses are now falling ill in Europe than in the spring.
© Zuma Press / Scanpix
Unavoidable measures
Angela Merkel’s chief of staff reported on Monday that 85 percent of In German cases, the source of the infection can no longer be traced, meaning that doctors lose their footprint in the chain of infections.
The German chancellor, who is struggling to reconcile the positions of the territorial leaders, told a meeting of her party members that the new measures were inevitable, said a source, familiar with the discussions. Europe’s largest economy was one of the most resilient countries during the first wave of the coronavirus outbreak, but for the past week, the daily average has already been well above the spring peak.
The number of cases is increasing across Europe as the air temperature has dropped and autumn gains traction on the continent. The SARS-CoV-2 virus survives longer in colder temperatures, increasing the risk of infection. It is possible that fatigue due to social isolation was also affected.
© Sipa / Scanpix
“We are surprised by the drastic nature of the situation over the past 10-15 days,” said French chief physician JF Delfraissy.
In Poland, as in other European countries, officials have managed to stem the spring wave with the introduction of a total quarantine, prompting the government to begin easing restrictions.
High-ranking officials declared the virus “no longer a threat,” helping them mobilize high-level voters on themselves during the summer presidential elections, which the then-president won by a small margin.
“As the number of infected Poles began to grow, people still believed that the situation was under control,” said Olgierd Annusewicz, a political scientist at the University of Warsaw. “It was a time when temporary hospitals had to be built, so we entered the second wave unprepared.”
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