Covid-19: half of adults vaccinated in Europe, recovery threatened by the Delta variant

About 200 million people in Europe, more than half the adult population, are now fully vaccinated against Covid-19, the European Commission said Thursday, July 22, which is targeting the 70% level this summer. But the meteoric progression of the Delta variant threatens to hamper the return to normalcy on the continent.

Identified for the first time in India, this variant is causing a new wave of contamination in many countries, especially on the European continent. Its spread is slowing the expected recovery, for example creating labor shortages in the UK.

“The recovery of the euro area economy is on track,” said European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde. “But the pandemic continues to cast a shadow, especially as the Delta variant is a growing source of uncertainty.”

This rise in contamination could slow down the recovery “in services, particularly in tourism and hotels,” she added.

“Worrisome dynamics”

In Great Britain, hundreds of thousands of contact cases are forced to isolate themselves for ten days, crippling the economy: empty supermarket shelves, London Underground line interrupted for lack of sufficient personnel, intervention time for security forces. elongated font.

The British government, which lifted almost all restrictions as the number of contaminations soared, is now under pressure, encouraged to relax isolation rules.

Highly contagious, the Delta variant has become the majority in much of Europe and the United States. German Chancellor Angela Merkel referred to an “exponential growth” in the number of new cases, seeing it as “a worrying dynamic”: she envisages “a doubling in less than 2 weeks” in the number of new infections.

“Every vaccination counts. Every vaccination is a step, a small step, towards a return to normality for all”, she added. Since mid-July, the daily number of new cases in Germany has averaged over a thousand and reached 1,890 cases on Thursday.

“Do not stigmatize young people”

A figure much lower than France, caught in a “fourth wave”, according to Prime Minister Jean Castex, a few weeks after having eased the restrictions.

The daily number of new cases has returned to the highest since the beginning of May: Public Health France reported 21,909 contaminations in 24 hours, unheard of since May 5.

The positivity rate also continues to rise, standing at 3.2% (over seven days, at D – 3), ie half a point increase in a single day.

“It is true that the epidemic is resuming, especially in terms of incidence among young people. The whole point is that it is not transmitted to the elderly,” said government spokesman Gabriel on Thursday. Attal, assuring, however, that he did not want to “stigmatize the young people who drooled over it for a year and a half”.

In France, as in other countries where vulnerable people have already been vaccinated, the number of hospitalizations or deaths is not increasing.

To speed up the epidemic, the French government passed, on the night of Thursday to Friday, a bill that will make the vaccination of caregivers mandatory and impose the health pass in cafes and restaurants, already in force in cinemas and theaters.

If this prospect has precipitated hundreds of thousands of French people in the vaccination centers, it also provokes demonstrations of protest.

Thursday evening, Italy in turn announced the establishment of a health pass, which will be necessary from August 6 to frequent closed places such as restaurants.

Faced with this rapid spread of the so-called Indian variant, governments are betting on vaccination, even if it means making it compulsory for the health professions. The thousands of employees of New York public hospitals will soon have to be vaccinated against Covid or be tested every week.

In Greece, compulsory vaccination of caregivers is in the process of being adopted in parliament but is also causing protests.

For its part, Portugal wants to vaccinate 12-17 year olds by the start of the school year.

A “long-term and far-reaching” impact

A year and a half after China reported the first cases of coronavirus, the dramatic consequences of this global epidemic, which has already claimed more than 4.1 million lives, are notable.

The life expectancy of Americans fell by a year and a half in 2020, the biggest drop since World War II, according to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) – a development attributed in large part party to the pandemic.

The latter will have a “long-term and far-reaching” impact on the mental health of populations, warned the World Health Organization (WHO).

“From anxiety linked to the transmission of the virus, to the psychological impact of confinements and self-isolation, to the consequences linked to unemployment, financial difficulties and social exclusion, (…), everything the world is affected in one way or another, “says the organization.

The origins of the pandemic have yet to be identified. Beijing on Thursday criticized the WHO’s request to continue its investigation in China, seeing it as “a lack of respect for common sense and an arrogance towards science.”

The Chinese authorities have once again denied the theory of a laboratory leak in Wuhan, a hypothesis that has come back in force in recent months.

With AFP