LONDON (AP) – Despite growing access to vaccines, January looks bleak around the world as the coronavirus resurfaces and reforms itself from Britain to Japan and California, filling hospitals and threatening livelihoods again, as governments coronate close and rush to find solutions.
England went back to lockdown. Mexico City’s hospitals have more virus patients than ever before. Germany reported one of the highest daily death tolls to date on Tuesday. South Africa and Brazil are struggling to find space for the dead. Even a pandemic success story Thailand is fighting an unexpected wave of infections.
And as doctors face or brace themselves for the rising number of COVID-19 patients following year-end meetings on holidays, more and more countries are reporting cases of a new, more contagious variant already spreading across Britain.
January will be “difficult,” said Dr. Margaret Harris, a spokeswoman for the World Health Organization. “This idea that seems to be, ‘Ah, we’re all sick of it. We want to look at something else. Oh, this doesn’t apply to me ‘… that has to go. They really are all hands on deck. “
While Britain introduced a second vaccine this week and some US states are starting to give the second round of injections, access to vaccinations is vastly uneven worldwide. The supply doesn’t get very close to meeting the epic demand it takes to defeat an enemy who has already killed more than 1.85 million people.
“We are in a race to prevent infections, take down cases, protect health systems and save lives, all while rolling out two highly effective and safe vaccines for high-risk populations,” said Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of the United States. WHO. “This is not easy. These are the difficult kilometers.”
England faces a third national lockdown that will last at least six weeks, as authorities struggle to stop a wave of COVID-19 infections and relieve hospitals, where some patients are waiting in ambulances in a parking lot to access overcrowded wards.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the tricky new home base for England at midnight on Tuesday. It will close schools, restaurants and all non-essential stores and will not be overhauled until mid-February. Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon imposed a lockdown that began on Tuesday.
The two leaders said the restrictions are necessary to protect the National Health Service amid the emergence of the new variety that is driving daily infections, hospital admissions and deaths.
The NHS “is probably going through its most difficult time in living memory,” said Siva Anandaciva, chief analyst for the King’s Fund think tank.
Elsewhere in Europe, Italy and Germany have extended their Christmas locks, Spain limited travel, and Denmark reduced the number of people who can gather in public from 10 to five. France is likely to announce tougher measures on Thursday and Ukraine will close schools and restaurants from Friday.
In Latin America, some are warning that the worst is yet to come.
“The boost we are experiencing here in Brazil is much more severe than what happened months ago,” said Domingos Alves, an adjunct professor at the University of Sao Paulo.
Intensive care patients in Brazil hit their highest levels since August, just as the country reopened shops and offices after the end of the holidays – and the vast country still hasn’t approved or received any vaccines. Some Brazilian hospitals placed refrigerated containers outside to keep the corpses of COVID-19 victims.
Mexico’s capital has more virus patients than ever before during the pandemic, and doctors are arriving from less affected states. The beach resorts are gearing up for more cases after thousands of American and European tourists have visited this vacation.
“We will probably see in the third week of January that the system becomes more stressed, that there will be more outpatient cases and cases that require hospitalization,” said Dr. Mauricio Rodriguez of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He blamed fatigue from social aloofness, mixed messages from public figures and Mexicans who pay less attention during the holidays.
Zimbabwe reintroduced a curfew, banned public gatherings and indefinitely suspended the opening of schools. In South Africa, which sees yet another fast-spreading variant of the virus and is the continent’s hardest-hit nation, authorities have re-imposed a curfew, banned liquor sales and closed most beaches.
South Africa’s funeral directors are struggling to cope with the rising death toll, National Funeral Practitioners Association of SA president Muzi Hlengwa told state broadcaster SABC.
“It’s something you’ve never seen before. … We have no more coffins, we have no more room in the morgue, ”he said. “We normally have cremations during the day, but now we even have cremations at night.”
The pandemic is even reaching countries that seemed to have the virus under control.
Thailand is facing a wave that has infected thousands in recent weeks due to complacency and poor planning. The government is shutting down large parts of the country, including the capital Bangkok, and is considering tougher measures.
Japan is gearing up to declare a state of emergency this week, strengthen border controls and speed up vaccine approvals after a wave of cases around New Year’s Eve.
And the holiday worries aren’t over yet now that 2021 has arrived.
Pope Francis abandoned an annual ritual of baptizing babies in the Sistine Chapel, linked to the feast day of Epiphany on Wednesday. Orthodox Christian countries like Russia and Greece could face more infections after celebrating Christmas on Thursday. And China is closing schools early in the run-up to next month’s Chinese New Year holiday, telling migrant workers not to go home and tourists to avoid Beijing.
The vaccinations are slow to get underway in many places. In the US, where more than 350,000 people have died, some states are struggling to get enough shots and organize vaccinations. The Netherlands has been heavily criticized for being the last country in the European Union to start vaccinations, which it will do on Wednesday. Australia does not plan to do this until March. And most poorer countries are even further behind.
Opposition politician Geert Wilders called the Dutch government ‘the village idiot of Europe’.
Still, India offers a glimmer of hope. The infection rate has dropped significantly from a peak in September, and the country is starting one of the largest vaccination programs in the world, with the goal of vaccinating 300 million people by August.
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AP reporters around the world contributed.
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