ROME (AP) – Much of Italy and parts of Poland have tightened restrictions in much of Italy and parts of Poland on Monday to curb rising coronavirus infections, while Paris in France is at risk of being hit with a weekend lockout because ICs are nearly saturated with COVID-19 patients.
In accordance with a decision by the Italian government late last week, 80% of schoolchildren, from kindergarten to high school, were excluded from Monday. The ever-increasing number of IC beds occupied by COVID-19 patients, the steadily increasing daily caseloads and the transmission of infections, mainly driven by a virus variant first discovered in Britain, have led the new government Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi applies the ‘red zone’ designation to more regions, including, for the first time since the color layering system was created last fall, in Lazio, the region including Rome.
In regions with a red zone, restaurants and cafes can only have takeout or delivery, non-essential shops have shutters, and residents must stay close to home except for work, health or groceries. Over the weekend, many hair salons took longer to handle last-minute customers and crowds expressed themselves in shopping streets, parks and seaside promenades before the crackdown took effect.
Reality collapsed on Monday.
In a country where coffee is drunk, rightfully so, at a cafe or at a table, and not some paper cup, Alessandra Lorisa took off her mask and sipped her in a square in Rome. “It’s become part of our routine now,” she said. “It’s a lot more American, if we can put it,” she added, hoping that after Easter, “we can see some improvements to go back to the routines we were used to.”
Draghi promised a rapid infusion of pandemic aid to closed businesses on Friday.
Commercial aspects aside, parents expressed concerns about children coming out of class. “They have little interaction with their friends now, they have to celebrate their birthdays alone,” said Marco Pacciani while strolling with his son through a park in Rome.
In Poland, amid a sharp rise in the number of new infections and in admitted COVID-19 patients, restrictions were tightened in two more regions, including the capital Warsaw and a western province bordering Germany. Two other provinces were already under restrictions.
Due to the increased measures, hotels and shopping centers must remain closed, as well as theaters, cinemas, fitness clubs and sports facilities. School children aged 6-9 receive a combination of classroom and distance education.
An inexorable rise in the number of patients treated in ICUs in French hospitals, particularly in the Paris region, is putting pressure on President Emmanuel Macron’s government. As elsewhere in Europe, virus variants in France are believed to fuel an increase in severe cases. Macron’s government has tried to avoid another punitive nationwide lockdown in 2021, opting instead for a nationwide curfew from 6pm to 6am.
It is expected that a decision will be taken within a few days whether the Paris region and its 12 million inhabitants will be shut down over the weekend.
Last week, countries in the Western Balkans announced a tightening of measures amid increases in the number of cases in Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro.
When they received the first vaccines on Wednesday, doctors in Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo, warned that the virus has exploded in recent days. Bars, restaurants and non-essential shops in the Sarajevo canton will be closed for the coming weekend.
In Serbia, Prime Minister Ana Brnabic criticized the holding of two concerts by a popular band in a hall in Belgrade in recent days. The country of 7 million inhabitants has vaccinated more than 1.5 million people, which is among the highest rates in Europe.
On the western edge of the continent, Portugal stood out as an outlier. It came out of a two-month pandemic lockdown on Monday, with the country gradually reopening over the next seven weeks, barring setbacks.
Primary and kindergartens, hair salons and bookstores were among the places that reopened on Monday. Prime Minister António Costa said in a tweet on Monday that the process should be “very careful, gradual and patchy”.
AP reporters from all over Europe contributed to this report.