The European Union is tightening quarantine due to an increase in the number of cases, and skeptics refuse the vaccine.
The third wave of the coronavirus pandemic has begun in Europe, the European Commission said amid problems with vaccinations. In this regard, European governments are extending or tightening quarantine restrictions. Correspondent.net tells the details.
Europa’s path to light at the end of the tunnel lengthens
Despite the tough quarantine and the beginning of mass vaccination, the incidence in European countries continues to grow. For example, in Poland, four times more infected people are detected than in the second half of February.
Already more than 70 percent of beds in Polish hospitals are occupied, and the number of patients on ventilators is now the highest since the beginning of the pandemic. In Poland, field hospitals are starting to work again, which should provide eight thousand additional beds.
In France, over 30 thousand cases of infection per day have been recorded over the past week. On the eve of the authorities reported 38.5 thousand people with COVID-19.
In Italy, the number of infected people is growing by about 25 thousand daily, in Germany – by an average of 17 thousand, and this is 2.5 times higher than in early March.
The third wave of the coronavirus pandemic “comes gradually or even rapidly in various countries of the European Union,” said European Commission spokesman Dana Spinant at a press conference on March 19.
Spinant warned that this would affect the EU economy. According to her, Brussels considers it necessary to accelerate the vaccination of the population: it is necessary to vaccinate at least 70 percent of the EU adult population in order to stop the spread of coronavirus.
However, there is still not enough vaccine in Europe to stop the third wave, said German Health Minister Jens Spahn.
From the beginning of 2021, European authorities planned to start mass vaccinations in order to “gradually return to normal life.”
But the full-fledged implementation of the program failed due to a shortage of drugs for vaccination – for various reasons, pharmaceutical companies could not supply the required number of ampoules.
In addition, the leaders of different countries announced the uneven distribution of vaccines between the members of the European Union, in particular, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz spoke about this.
Brussels has registered four vaccines for COVID-19: the development of Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna, Janssen (owned by Johnson & Johnson) and AstraZeneca.
In the first weeks of March, many EU countries abandoned the AstraZeneca vaccine due to reports of thrombosis and embolism in some patients and a few deaths.
As noted by the authoritative publication Science, the pause quickly escalated into a full-blown crisis in Europe, where vaccinations are slower than in the United States and Great Britain, and the incidence has skyrocketed, partly due to more infectious strains.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is also used in Ukraine. The Ukrainian authorities unambiguously declared the drug’s safety and were not going to suspend its use for vaccination of the population.
On March 18, the European Medicines Agency declared the drug safe and countries returned to its use, except Denmark, Norway and Finland. But confidence in AstraZeneca among European residents has fallen and they refuse to be vaccinated with this vaccine.
The YouGov poll, which was published on March 22, found that 61 percent of French respondents considered the vaccine dangerous, up 18 percentage points from February. Among Germans, that number is 55 percent – an increase of 15 percentage points.
In Spain, just over half of those polled, or 52 percent, said the vaccine was dangerous, while in Italy 43 percent were of the same opinion. In both countries, this figure has risen by 27 percentage points since February.
The only country where confidence in the vaccine remained high was the United Kingdom. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the AstraZeneca vaccine is the development of British scientists.
The results of the third phase of trials of this vaccine in the United States were published on March 22. They showed that the AstraZeneca vaccine is 79 percent effective against symptomatic coronavirus disease and 100 percent effective against severe COVID-19 with subsequent hospitalization.
Causes of thrombosis in coronavirus
At the moment, many EU countries are tightening anti-coronavirus measures. This happens almost exactly one year after the start of the first lockdown in Europe in March 2020.
One of the representatives of the World Health Organization Melita Vujnovic noted that for almost two months the number of infected people decreased, but then an increase was noticed.
In the fall, WHO warned that in European countries the third wave of coronavirus would begin in the first months of 2021. Such risks were noted against the backdrop of insufficient response to the pandemic.
According to the organization’s special envoy for COVID-19, David Nabarro, European authorities were unable to build the necessary infrastructure to fight the coronavirus in the summer months of last year – after the first wave ended.
On March 21, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was forced to admit that the country, apparently, will soon face new quarantine restrictions and an extension of the lockdown for the entire April.
Berlin is especially afraid of the upcoming Easter, therefore, it urges the inhabitants of the country to gather for the holiday only with the closest family members and to limit travel.
Lars Schaade, vice president for infectious diseases at the Robert Koch Institute, warned that hospitals in Germany could be overcrowded due to the multitude of serious cases. The conclusion of the institute is unambiguous: the number of diseases in the country is growing exponentially.
France has already started quarantine measures: they have been introduced for a period of one month in 16 departments (including in the capital), more than 21 million people are affected. But the quarantine was relatively mild.
If last spring during the day it was possible to leave the house once and for one hour within a radius of a kilometer, now this diameter has been increased to ten kilometers, and you can walk at least all day at the time permitted by curfew, that is, from six in the morning to seven evenings.
Many shops have closed, travel is prohibited from region to region, and citizens are asked to work only from home. But with the observance of safety measures remain open, in particular, hairdressers, flower salons, shoe repair and car workshops. Primary schools are still in operation, while high schools will study partly online.
“The events of recent days strengthen the EU as the main loser in the race of Western countries, eager to return to their usual everyday life … Europe’s path to light at the end of the tunnel, it seems, is only lengthening,” notes the Danish edition of Berlingske.
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