Covid 19 coronavirus: a ‘new storm’ looms as battered Europe extends lockdowns

European leaders are extending their lockdowns as Covid-19 ravages the region with vaccine launches that are not expected to help for months.

The UK’s mutant strain of coronavirus is sweeping the continent and healthcare systems are struggling to cope with the surge in cases and deaths, with leaders warning that this is now the worst period of the pandemic.

More than 26 million cases and 584,000 deaths have been reported in the European Union and the United Kingdom, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

Coronavirus injections are supposed to be given in two doses roughly 21 days apart, but the UK is now spacing the doses up to 12 weeks in its race to vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as possible. Denmark is spacing vaccines up to six weeks, while Germany is also considering delaying the second injection.

The UK is facing the worst situation in the region with more than 3 million cases and 83,000 deaths, and reported a record 1,564 deaths on Wednesday.

Politicians have already passed legislation that would allow the blockade of England to continue until the end of March.

A study published Wednesday found that nearly half of intensive care unit workers suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder, depression or anxiety, or turned to alcohol to cope with the unprecedented pressures that the pandemic has accumulated on the UK health system.

About one in seven reported recent thoughts of self-harm or wanting to die, and nurses experienced the highest levels of distress, according to the survey of 709 employees published in the journal Occupational Medicine.

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Sky News that it was “impossible to know” when the closures would end and that the government will keep the restrictions in place “for as long as they are necessary.”

When asked about reports that patients could be transferred to hotels to free up hospital beds, he said the government would “look at all options.”

Paramedics told news.com.au that ambulances waited up to nine hours outside hospitals crowded with Covid-19 patients. Some hospitals have had to divert patients, oxygen is being rationed and huge temporary morgues are being used to store dead bodies after hospital morgues reached capacity.

Italy, which has almost the same number of deaths as the United Kingdom with just under 80,000, will extend its state of emergency until the end of April, said Health Minister Roberto Speranza.

It warned that 12 of Italy’s 20 regions were at risk of tighter restrictions after a worsening Covid-19 situation, including an increase in the number of people in intensive care.

“A new strong storm is brewing in Europe,” he said, adding that German Chancellor Angela Merkel “was right when she said that we are facing the toughest months of the pandemic.”

Speranza warned against “unforgivable” distractions with the country facing a government crisis as it suffered its worst recession since World War II.

“Let us keep political infighting, real or suspected electoral tensions, away and out of the health of Italians,” he told the lower house of parliament in a Covid-19 update.

German Health Minister Jens Spahn told Deutschlandfunk radio that it would be another two to three months before the vaccination campaign really started helping, and that the country was likely to extend its restrictions until February.

The Netherlands is also extending the lockdown measures for at least three weeks until February 9. “This decision is not a surprise, but it is an incredible disappointment,” Prime Minister Mark Rutte told a news conference, adding that the threat posed by the new variant was “very, very worrying.”

French President Emmanuel Macron met with high-level ministers to discuss possible new measures. The nationwide curfew could start at 6 p.m. instead of 8 p.m., French media reported.

Ireland became the global epicenter of the coronavirus last week, registering a higher infection rate than any other country, according to Our World in Data from the University of Oxford. Ireland reported around 1,323 Covid-19 cases per million people in the seven days to January 10.

Switzerland is expected to extend its lockdown restrictions for five weeks until the end of February.

At least 60 people tested positive in the alpine town of Wengen in the past four weeks.

Authorities in Bern said the new variant had been brought to the area by a single British tourist and was spreading rapidly among locals, with the Lauberhorn World Cup downhill race now canceled.