A woman walks past a poster featuring a nurse wearing a protective mask, thanking all the professions that have supported the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic on a street in Rennes, western France on November 2, 2020, now France under a new general lockdown stands for curbing the spread of the new coronavirus Covid-19.
Damien Meyer | AFP | Getty images
More than a year after the coronavirus first hit Europe, much of the continent spent Easter – usually a major holiday in the region – in lockdown as it grapples with a third wave of viral infections.
“It’s just a big mess. Everyone is frustrated with the government,” Hannah Weiler, a medical student in Cologne, Germany, told CNBC.
The German government scrapped plans for the Easter national blockade just a day after it was announced in late March, instead leaving measures to the country’s 16 federal states amid backlash from the public. But Chancellor Angela Merkel urged residents to stay home the long weekend.
“Germany is a textbook example of absurdity,” said Weiler. All 16 states are doing their own thing and the government seems unable to come up with a clear strategy. ”
The ‘mood really started to go downhill,’ she said, ‘which the politicians interpreted as a desire for looser restrictions, so they started opening stores. … Surprise, surprise, things are increasing and we are now in the third wave. ‘
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, Germany has recorded a total of just over 2.9 million coronavirus cases and more than 77,000 deaths. The daily number of cases in the past month has fluctuated between about 9,000 and 20,000 per day, not approaching the maximum of 49,000 cases in one day at the end of December. Germany’s peak level in the spring of last year, which triggered the initial freeze, was just over 6,000.
A pedestrian with a protective face mask walks along a street art wall by French street artist JBC, in tribute to health workers who propose a nurse wearing a protective face mask in connection with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on March 24, 2021 in Paris, France.
Chesnot | Getty images
France and Italy imposed nationwide lockdowns for Easter weekend as a wave of cases related to the more contagious variant first identified in the UK late last year threatened to overwhelm intensive care units again.
Italy announced a strict three-day lockdown to the normally lively holiday in the heavily Catholic country, banning all non-essential travel but allowing churches to remain open and allowing people to have Easter meals at home with up to two other adults.
Italy has recorded 3.6 million cases of the virus and more than 111,000 deaths, the highest number of fatalities in Europe after the UK. According to Hopkins, the daily number of cases is about 20,000. This is about half the number observed during the November peak, but has risen from about 13,000 cases per day in February and well above the spring 2020 peak of about 6,000 per day.
France: The number of daily cases has tripled since February
The number of new Covid cases in France every day has skyrocketed, with the country registering more than 66,000 new cases on Sunday alone – three times the daily number of cases in February. Local media report that French hospitals are overwhelmed.
This is more than 1,000% higher than during the first wave of France in the spring of last year, which saw new daily cases in the 5,000 with the highest number in early April 2020, according to figures from the French government. Officials now fear a return to record levels of infection in November, when the country registered nearly 90,000 new cases in one day.
The EU has been criticized for the introduction of vaccines, which is lagging behind those of the UK and the US.
Spain now fears a similar fate to France, and Spanish Health Minister Carolina Darias has urged regional health authorities to continue vaccinations throughout Easter week.
France has registered the most cases of coronavirus in Europe and the fourth highest number in the world with a total of 4.8 million, and more than 96,000 deaths.
“At this point, almost everyone has lost faith in the way the French government deals with Covid,” Liz Warren, an American living in Paris, told CNBC.
“No one understands certain measures that have been taken – that is, places of worship remain open and non-essential stores are forced to close. It’s a big mess and I don’t expect this country to overtake the US or the UK until at least the UK. fall.”
Paris police are deploying 6,600 officers to enforce lockdown rules, curfews run from 7pm to 6am, and gatherings of more than six people are prohibited. But Warren and other French residents find the latest measures more relaxed than previous lockdowns: unlike in the past, there is no time limit on how long people can stay out, and residents are allowed to travel within 10 kilometers (6 miles) of their home. as opposed to just 1 mile in previous lockdowns.
Still, after months of changing measures and inconsistent government reports, many in France do not think that the lockdown rules will be widely enforced.
“For me, with the third incarceration, I’m fed up with it,” said Romain Baudelet, a student in the coastal city of La Rochelle. “I don’t think it will be followed very well here.”