A generationIt’s almost as if the pandemic never happened. In Cologne, at 11 am on November 11th, the countdown to the annual carnival began, and thousands of revelers in fancy costumes crowded into the crowd.
In Paris, bars and clubs are open until late, and they are full on Wednesday. Armistice day is a national holiday. In Amsterdam, in the cafes and cafes around Leidseplein, everything is business as usual.
But not herald the beginning of the celebration Christmas And the New Year, as the fourth wave of coronavirus sweeps across Europe, those nights may be the last cheer.Six Dutch towns have cancelled popular parades. To the delight of children across the country, this marks the annual Saint nicholas This weekend, the famous Christmas market in Germany may be cancelled.
The governor of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer, said last week, “You can’t imagine standing on the market in an overcrowded hospital, drinking mulled wine, and fighting for the last resource.” He urged the federal government to make Tough decisions.
As the Netherlands on Saturday became the first Western European country since summer Partial blockade, Berlin banned unvaccinated restaurants, France raced to improve its booster campaign, and Europe once again became the epicenter of the pandemic.
According to the world healthy Organizationally, in the past week, coronavirus infections on the African continent have increased by 7%, and the number of deaths has increased by 10%, making it the only region in the world where the number of cases and deaths has increased steadily.
Nearly two-thirds of new infections (approximately 1.9 million) occurred in EuropeAccording to the WHO, this marks the sixth consecutive week of upswing in the spread of the virus across the African continent, with some countries experiencing the fourth or fifth wave. With the exception of Central and Eastern Europe, where vaccine coverage is significantly lower, hospital admissions and deaths are generally much lower than a year ago, and there are differences in preventive measures between countries, so it is difficult to draw broad conclusions.
However, experts agree that the most likely reasons are the low vaccination rate, the decline of the immunity of early vaccinators, and the government’s growing complacency in wearing masks and keeping distance after relaxing restrictions in the summer.
“The message has always been: Go all out,” Hans Kruger, WHO’s regional director for Europe, said last week. “Vaccines are fulfilling their promise: to prevent serious forms of disease, especially mortality. But only when used with preventive measures, they are our most powerful asset.”
The European continent has the highest vaccination rate in Southern Europe. Portugal, Malta, and Spain have double vaccinated more than 80% of the population, followed by Italy with 73%. Data from OurWorldInData.
Among these countries, the 7-day rolling average of new infections per day is the lowest in the EU, at about 100 per million people-but they are rising slightly, and in regions with lower vaccination rates, they Has proliferated.
Trieste, which took place last month against Italy’s Green Pass – Europe’s most stringent, requiring workers to show proof of vaccination, immunity or a recent negative test to enter their workplaces – daily cases have more than doubled. “We have returned to the dark days of the pandemic,” the head of an intensive care unit in the city said after a surge in hospital admissions last week. 90% of them were not vaccinated and were most directly related to the protests.
But the NetherlandsFrance and Germany, where vaccine coverage is only a few percentage points lower, have also begun to experience a surge in infections, even facing challenges for governments with relatively high acceptance rates.
The Netherlands has fully vaccinated 73% of the population and entered a three-week partial lockdown on Saturday. Bars, restaurants and essential goods stores will be closed from 8 pm, non-essential stores and services will be closed from 6 pm, and family gatherings will be closed. The limit was four guests after the number of cases hit a new record.
The country eased most of the restrictions during the summer. This week, there were an average of 609 new infections per million people. This 7-day average prompted the government to turn around and fulfill its promise to lift all restrictions by the end of the year.
According to data from OurWorldInData, nearly 69% of the French population is also fully vaccinated (the government figure, which includes those who have previously been infected with the new coronavirus and only vaccinated once, is slightly higher).
Since the summer, entering shops, bars and restaurants, boarding planes or taking long-distance trains requires a vaccination certificate, a rehabilitation certificate or a negative test certificate health pass, and indoor public places must still wear masks-but the new case has been a month, Each week, it grows by a double-digit percentage.
French Minister of Health Olivier Véran said last week: “What we have experienced in France clearly looks like the beginning of the fifth wave, because the 7-day average of new cases is still relatively low, but It climbed steadily to 134 parts per million.
Emmanuel Macron says From December 1st, high-risk groups over 65 years old and without the third injection will no longer be eligible for health passes, and the strengthening plan will be expanded to over 50 years old.
66.5% of Germany’s population has been fully vaccinated and is on the cusp of the fourth wave. This may be the worst so far, setting the highest daily infection rate in the past two years in the past five days, with 48,640 new cases. . Friday brought its 7-day average to over 381 parts per million.
The head of the German disease control agency warned that the intensive care unit is facing an unprecedented squeeze, saying that the country is “five minutes from midnight” and that the hardest-hit states are considering lockdowns.
Starting Monday, in Berlin, only people who have been vaccinated or have recently recovered can enter restaurants, movie theaters and barbershops. Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn proposed similar rules for entering public events on Friday.
Christoph Spinner, an infection scientist at the Rechts der Isar Hospital in Munich, questioned whether these measures were sufficient. “What we need now is consistent and severe action by the government. I’m not sure if we currently have it,” he told reporters. Observer.
He said that in Spinner’s own hospital, about three-quarters of people receiving severe Covid treatment were not vaccinated. About half have pre-existing conditions. “Those who say this is a purely unvaccinated epidemic are wrong,” he said.
In almost all Western European countries, the vaccination rate is the lowest (62.8%) and the infection rate is the highest (more than 1,000 cases per million cases per day), Austria This week, it will impose lockdowns on unvaccinated people in its two hardest-hit areas, and similar measures may be taken across the country. Prime Minister Alexander Schallenberg said on Friday that people who have not been vaccinated in Upper Austria and the Salzburg region can only leave their homes for specific and necessary reasons, such as buying groceries or seeing a doctor.
German-speaking Austria, Switzerland and Germany have the highest unvaccinated rates in Western Europe, although the specific reasons for people’s reluctance to get vaccinated are difficult to determine. Compared with southern European countries such as Italy or Spain, these three countries have experienced relatively mild fluctuations so far, which may have caused many people to underestimate the lethality of the virus.
They also accept and even support “alternative medicine”: in Germany, for example, homeopathic medicines can be purchased in pharmacies and are covered by many statutory health insurance funds.
In the former Socialist German Democratic Republic, the use of measles and flu vaccines has traditionally been high-but Saxony, Thuringia, Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt are currently at the lowest levels. National Covid Vaccination Chart.
Marco Wanderwitz, the special commissioner of the Eastern German government, said that vaccine resistance may have political significance in his hometown of Saxony, which is the bastion of the far-right German Alternative Party.
“There is a clear link between supporting AfD and rejecting the vaccine,” Wanderwitz said. In Austria, the far-right Liberal Party (FPÖ) also enthusiastically supports the anti-drug views.
At the same time, in Central and Eastern Europe, most of which were freed from communism 30 years ago, poverty, poor health education and misinformation combined with deep-rooted distrust of government and state institutions have produced the lowest level in Europe Vaccination rate.
Therefore, there are currently 9 Central and Eastern European countries that have the 10 highest daily death rates from the new coronavirus in the EU. Romania and Bulgaria The highest daily death rate in the European Union is about 22 parts per million—more than 30 times the death rate in France, Spain, and Portugal.
Despite the adequate supply of vaccines, these two countries have the lowest vaccination rates among the EU-27 population: only 34.5% of Romanian residents received two injections, compared with 23.04% in Bulgaria. Both have recently imposed stricter restrictions, and another county with a low vaccination rate, Latvia, A 4-week lockdown was implemented as early as mid-OctoberThe Czech Republic, Slovakia and Russia have also tightened measures.
In Western Europe, the question now is whether countries can contain this most new wave without resorting to a total blockade. Experts say the answer may be yes-measures such as the distance of indoor places, masks and vaccine regulations are crucial.
Antonella Viola, professor of immunology at the University of Padua, Italy, said: “If one of them is missing, we will see what we see in many European countries.”
Hans Kluge said last week that the authorities must speed up the introduction of vaccines, including booster injections for high-risk groups and vaccination for teenagers. He said: “Today, most people hospitalized and died of Covid-19 are not fully vaccinated.”
But he said that public health and social measures are equally important, adding that WHO estimates that 95% of the mask penetration rate in Europe can save nearly 200,000 lives.
Kruger said that the “correct and consistent” application of preventive measures “enables us to continue our lives, not the other way around.” “Preventive measures do not deprive people of their freedom, but ensure freedom.”
