Europe is facing a resurgence of Covid-19 as hopes for vaccines diminish

Virus infections and deaths have declined rapidly in the US and UK since January, as immunizations among the elderly and other vulnerable groups increase. However, new Covid-19 cases have been on the rise in the EU since mid-February. Infections and deaths in the US, which were higher per capita for most of 2020, have fallen below that of the bloc.

In much of the continent, the spread of the more aggressive variety first discovered in the UK is behind the worsening of the pandemic, reversing the rigorous efforts to contain the virus since the fall with a series of constraints that caused the economic recovery of the block. to a stop.

Governments and public health experts say only a combination of accelerated vaccinations and gradual reopening can beat the latest Covid-19 revival. But EU efforts continue to suffer from slowness in vaccine procurement and approval, production delays at vaccine manufacturers and bureaucratic delays in injecting available doses.

So far, nothing beats the acute hospital crisis that overwhelmed healthcare systems in parts of Italy and Spain a year ago. Instead, the bloc’s public health crisis has turned chronic, with authorities constantly struggling to put out the flames.

Despite similar trends in the larger countries of the bloc, political pressure leads to different responses.

Italy, the first Western country to be hit by the pandemic, entered the world’s first nationwide lockdown on March 10 last year. Now some Italians are starting to joke that they will be the last nation to leave a lockdown.

New Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s first big decision, confirmed Friday, was to lock many regions of Italy and the entire country at Easter from Monday.

The decision means that bars, restaurants and non-essential stores will close in many regions, while facing tighter limits on hours and services offered elsewhere. People’s movement will be more strictly restricted. Millions of students will again learn from a distance.

The escalation in Italy comes after weeks of lighter measures failed to halt the rapid rise of the British variant.

“I thank the citizens once again for their discipline, their unending patience,” said Mr Draghi earlier this week. His new government, attracted mainly for its economic expertise, is instead looking for ways to increase vaccine production.

Draghi doesn’t have to worry about reelection: he’s a technocratic prime minister who will probably only run an emergency government for a year with the support of almost all parties in parliament.

Elsewhere in the region, electoral pressure is holding back leaders from tightening restrictions, despite increasing infections and hospitalizations.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who is due for re-election next year, has rejected calls from public health experts to impose a third lockdown on the country. Instead, he relies on a nationwide curfew and other restrictions as authorities try to speed up vaccinations.

Health Minister Olivier Veran told reporters on Thursday that variants are now responsible for more than 70% of new infections in France. Pressure is rising again in intensive care units in the Paris region, where he said a new patient is admitted every 12 minutes. Mr Veran said he expected authorities to transfer dozens of patients from the Paris region to hospitals in regions with fewer cases. Nationally, ICUs are almost 80% full.

“It’s a situation that I would consider tense and worrying,” said Mr Veran.

In Germany, which is gearing up for the national elections in September, there is little political will to impose tougher restrictions, even though infections have increased again since the beginning of February. Scientists say that the British variant is also behind the rise there.

The setback took the German government by surprise: for weeks the pandemic seemed to be abating, and federal and state authorities pledged to ease lockdown measures. Fearing a public reaction, the German authorities are relaxing some measures anyway.

Hairdressers reopened on March 1. Some state governments have authorized the reopening of some stores – from bookstores to garden centers. Younger children also return to class.

Despite frustrations with the restrictions, many question the government’s strategy. Only 30% of Germans trust the competence of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right party, while confidence in her center-left coalition partner is in the single digits, according to a survey released this week by poll institute Forsa.

The German press, initially supporting Ms. Merkel’s approach to the pandemic, has also turned against the government, with publications from the conservative mass market Bild-tabloid to the left-wing Spiegel attacking the authorities’ competence on a daily basis.

Now scientists are concerned that the combination of virus variants, snail’s-wing vaccinations and reopenings could skyrocket infection rates. “We see clear signs that the third wave has now started in Germany,” Lothar Wieler, president of the Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases, told journalists on Thursday. “I am very concerned.”

Write to Marcus Walker at [email protected], Bertrand Benoit at [email protected] and Stacy Meichtry at [email protected]