Europe is facing a Covid-19 recovery as vaccine hopes drop

Virus infections and deaths have declined rapidly in the US and the UK since January, as inoculations have taken off among the elderly and other vulnerable groups. However, in the EU, new Covid-19 cases have risen again since mid-February. US infections and deaths, which were higher per capita for most of 2020, fell below those of the bloc.

In much of the continent, the spread of the more aggressive variant detected for the first time in the UK is behind the worsening pandemic, nullifying intense efforts to control the virus since the autumn, with a series of restrictions that have brought the bloc’s economic recovery to a standstill. .

Governments and public health experts say that only a combination of accelerated vaccinations and gradual reopening can overcome the last setback of Covid-19. But the EU’s efforts continue to suffer from its slowdown in vaccine procurement and approval, vaccine manufacturers’ production delays and bureaucratic delays in injecting available doses.

So far, there is nothing like the acute hospital crisis that has overwhelmed health systems in parts of Italy and Spain a year ago. Instead, the bloc’s public health crisis has become chronic, with authorities constantly struggling to reduce the flames.

Despite similar trends in the bloc’s larger countries, political pressures lead to different responses.

Italy, the first Western country to be affected by the pandemic, entered the world’s first national blockade on March 10 last year. Now, some Italians are starting to joke that they will be the last nation to emerge from a stalemate.

The first major decision of the new Prime Minister Mario Draghi, confirmed on Friday, was the blockade of many regions of Italy since Monday and of the entire Easter country.

The decision means that non-essential bars, restaurants and shops will close in many regions, while elsewhere they face stricter hours and services. The movement of people will be more strictly restricted. Millions of students will return to distance learning.

Italy’s escalation comes after weeks of lighter measures failed to stop the rapid growth of the British variant.

“Once again, I thank the citizens for their discipline, their infinite patience,” Mr Draghi said earlier this week. Its new administration, brought mainly for its economic expertise, is instead looking for ways to increase vaccine production.

Mr Draghi does not have to worry about re-election: he is a technocratic prime minister who leads an emergency government, with the support of almost all parties in parliament, probably only for a year.

Elsewhere in the region, electoral pressure is preventing leaders from tightening restrictions, despite growing infections and hospitalizations.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who is due to be re-elected next year, has rejected calls by public health experts to impose a third deadlock in the country. Instead, he relied on a national evening leave and other restrictions, while authorities are trying to speed up vaccinations.

The Minister of Health, Olivier Veran, told reporters on Thursday that the variants now represent over 70% of the new infections in France. The pressure is rising again on intensive care units in the Paris region, where he said a new patient is hospitalized every 12 minutes. Mr Veran said he expected authorities to start transferring dozens of patients from the Paris area to hospitals in regions with fewer cases. At the national level, ICUs are almost 80% full.

“It is a situation that I would describe as tense and worrying,” Mr Veran said.

In Germany, which is preparing for the September national elections, there is little political will to impose tougher restrictions, even though infections have started to rise again since early February. Scientists say that the British version is also behind the growth there.

The counterattack took the German government by surprise: for weeks, the pandemic seemed to be waning, and federal and state authorities promised a relaxation of the blocking measures. Fearing a public backlash, the German authorities are easing some measures anyway.

Hairdressers reopened on March 1. Some state governments have allowed shops – from bookstores to garden centers – to reopen. Younger children also began to return to the classrooms.

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 simple figures, according to a poll released this week by opinion poll Forsa .

The German press, initially backed by Mrs Merkel’s management of the pandemic, also turned against the government, with publications from the left-leaning conservative tabloid Bild Bild to Spiegel attacking the authorities’ competence on a daily basis.

Now scientists fear that the combination of virus variants, snail vaccinations and reopening could increase the number of infections. “We see clear signs that the third wave has now begun in Germany,” Lothar Wieler, president of the Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases, told reporters on Thursday. “I’m very worried.”

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