A woman walks past a poster with a nurse wearing a face mask and thanks all the professions that supported the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic on a street in Rennes, western France, on November 2, 2020, because France is in a new general blockage slows the spread of the Roman coronavirus Covid-19.
Damien Meyer | AFP | Getty Images
A year after the coronavirus hit Europe for the first time, much of the continent has spent Easter – usually a major holiday in the region – stalled as it faces a third wave of virus infections.
“It’s just a big mess. Everyone is frustrated by the government,” Hannah Weiler, a medical student in Cologne, Germany, told CNBC.
The German government dropped its national Easter closure plans just a day after it was announced in late March, leaving measures in the country’s 16 federal states in response to public backlash. But Chancellor Angela Merkel urged residents to stay home for the long weekend.
“Germany is a prime example of nonsense,” Weiler said. “All 16 federal states are doing their own thing and the government seems incapable of coming up with a clear strategy. ”
“The mood started to really go down,” she said, “which politicians interpreted as a desire for weaker restrictions, so they started opening stores. … Surprise, surprise, the cases are growing and we are in the third wave now ”.
Germany has a total of just over 2.9 million cases of coronavirus and more than 77,000 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Its daily number of cases in the last month ranged from about 9,000 to 20,000 a day, approaching another 49,000 cases in a single day at the end of December. Germany’s maximum level last spring, triggering the initial blockade, was just over 6,000.
A pedestrian wearing a face mask passes a street art mural by French street artist JBC in homage to health care workers depicting a nurse wearing a face mask against coronavirus disease (COVID- 19) on March 24, 2021 in Paris, France.
Chesnot | Getty Images
France and Italy imposed national blockades before the end of Easter week, as a wave of cases related to the more contagious variant first identified in the UK at the end of last year threatened to overwhelm intensive care units once again.
Italy has announced a strict three-day ban on the vibrant normal holiday in the heavily Catholic country, banning all non-essential travel, but allowing churches to remain open and allowing people to dine at home with up to two other adults.
Italy recorded 3.6 million cases of the virus and more than 111,000 deaths, the highest number of deaths in Europe after the United Kingdom. Its daily case rate is about 20,000, according to Hopkins. This is about half the number observed during its peak in November, but increased from about 13,000 cases per day in February and well above its peak in spring 2020, of about 6,000 per day.
France: Daily cases have tripled since February
The new daily Covid cases rose in France, with the country registering more than 66,000 new cases on Sunday alone – tripling the daily rate in February. Local media report that French hospitals are overwhelmed.
This is more than 1,000% higher than during the first wave of France last spring, which recorded new daily cases in the 5,000s, the highest in early April 2020, according to French government figures. Officials now fear a return to record infection levels since November, when the country registered nearly 90,000 new cases in one day.
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Spain now fears a similar fate to France, and Spanish Health Minister Carolina Darias has called on regional health authorities to continue vaccinations throughout Easter week.
France has the most coronavirus cases in Europe and the fourth largest in the world, with 4.8 million in total and more than 96,000 deaths.
“Right now, almost everyone has lost faith in the way the French government is dealing with Covid,” Liz Warren, an American living in Paris, told CNBC.
“No one really understands the measures that have been taken – that is, places of worship remain open and non-essential shops are forced to close. It’s a big mess and I don’t expect this country to catch up with the US or the UK until at least the autumn. . “
Paris police are deploying 6,600 officers to enforce the blockade rules, coverage is taking place between 7pm and 6am, and gatherings of more than six are banned. But Warren and other French residents find the latest measures more relaxed than previous blockades: unlike in the past, there is no time limit for how long people can stay outdoors, and residents are allowed to travel within a 10-mile radius. kilometers (6 miles) from their homes as opposed to just 1 kilometer in past blockages.
However, after months of changing measures and inconsistent messages from the government, many in France do not believe that the blocking rules will be widely followed.
“For me, with the third prison space, I’m tired,” said Romain Baudelet, a student in the coastal city of La Rochelle. “I don’t think he’ll be followed very well here.”