Europe enters its second pandemic winter: covid-19 generates chaos in eastern countries and uncertainty in the west

(CNN) – The confinements, the growth in infections and doubts about vaccines mark the beginning of the Europe’s second winter in pandemic, which is bringing chaos to the countries of the east and uncertainty to those of the west.

The confinements, the growth in infections and doubts about vaccines are marking the beginning of the second winter of Europe in a pandemic.

Despite the wide availability of vaccines this winter compared to the previous one, Europe is the only part of the world that has seen an increase in new cases of covid-19 worldwide, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday ( WHO). This is the third consecutive week that the region has seen an increase in cases, he added.

Suffering has been exacerbated in Eastern Europe and Russia, which are battling rising deaths and cases fueled by vaccine rejection, which has pushed coverage rates down to 24%, according to data of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

Last Thursday, Latvia became the first country in the European Union to impose a lockdown, as the country is fighting an increase in cases amidst the poor acceptance of vaccination. Only 56% of adults have received thes two doses of the vaccine, compared to 74.6% on average in the EU.

Cases are also growing in Western Europe

Western Europe is also seeing an increase in COVID-19 cases, despite some countries enjoying a almost universal vaccine coverage. The incidence rate of covid-19 in Germany rose to 100 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants on Saturday, for the first time since May. Belgium, along with Ireland, has one of the highest case rates in Western Europe, according to the ECDC, at 325.76 and 432.84 per 100,000 inhabitants respectively.

Belgian Health Minister Frank Vandenbrouck told the broadcaster on Wednesday VRT that the country was in a fourth wave. More than 85% of the adult population is fully vaccinated, and authorities claim that the vast majority of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 were not vaccinated, it reported. Reuters.

Different vaccination rates have caused Eastern and Western Europe to follow two different paths, but what they share is that case rates have risen due to loosening of pandemic restrictions as economies open up, the Cold weather keeps people home and the highly transmissible delta variant is now the dominant strain in the region, Dr. Peter Drobac, a global health expert at the University of Saïd School of Business, told CNN. Oxford in England.

Doubts about vaccines

The number of cases may be high in some Western European countries, but thanks to vaccines, COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations have remained virtually stable compared to their eastern counterparts.

Starting Monday, Romania will reintroduce night curfews and make health passes mandatory in most places, days after it registered 19.25 deaths per million inhabitants, one of the rates of covid-19 death per capita. highest in the world.

Romania’s problems are not due to a shortage of vaccines. EU countries have access to all EU-approved vaccines, but like many countries from the Baltic to the Balkans, Romania’s vaccine deployment has been hampered by doubts about vaccines, poor communication from the government and suspicion of the authorities. Only 35.6% of its adult population is fully vaccinated, according to the ECDC.

Neighboring Ukraine on Thursday reported its highest daily number of covid-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, of 22,415 cases, days after President Volodymyr Zelensky implored nationals to get vaccinated, saying it was the only way to get vaccinated. avoid a crash.

“Vaccination or confinement”

“There are two paths at this crossroads: vaccination or confinement,” Zelensky said in a televised interview with Ukrainian channel ICTV on Monday. “Every day we face this challenge and this election. I am totally against the closure … because of the economy.”

However, schools in Covid hot spots were closed on Friday and the government announced vaccination certificates or a negative test to access public transport in the capital, after daily deaths reached a record 614, according to Reuters.

Russia is enduring the worst phase of the pandemic. Moscow began a 10-day lockdown on Monday as its officials openly admitted that the country was facing a dire winter. In recent days the highest numbers of cases and daily deaths have been registered, and on Wednesday the record of 1,028 official fatalities was reached.

“Of course, not all that had to be done to inform and explain the inevitability and importance of vaccination has been done,” President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, as the Kremlin admitted partial responsibility for low vaccination rates. “But at the same time, the citizens of our country must take a more responsible position and get vaccinated,” he said.

No silver bullets

Western Europe will not “reach the crisis levels that we saw in the past – with the creation of field hospitals. [porque] vaccines have definitely changed the game and in that regard there should be many reasons for optimism, “said health expert Drobac.

However, the UK shows that vaccines are not a silver bullet, he added.

Britain is recording the highest number of daily cases in Western Europe after having abandoned almost all his restrictions against the pandemic in summer. Health experts and medical unions have implored the British government to reimpose measures such as mandatory masks or vaccine passes, in line with other European countries, to avoid imposing restrictive measures such as closures.

But his government has rejected such a move, even as hospitalizations and deaths rise. Katherine Henderson, president of the Royal College of Emergency Caregivers, told Sky News on Sunday that the country’s health service is already in “a terrible situation” due to COVID-19. Emergency services across the UK “are already struggling to cope” with the “long lines” of ambulances piling up outside, he said.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has urged people over 50 and those at high risk of contracting COVID-19 to get booster shots in an attempt to overcome declining protection from vaccines after six months.

New variants

This will not be enough in the midst of a vertiginous increase in cases that can be fertile ground for the creation of new variants. On Friday, the UK Health Security Agency designated a descendant of the delta variant, AY.4.2, as a “variant under investigation” due to “some early indications that it may have a higher growth rate in the UK in compared to delta, “the government agency wrote.

“The UK strategy has been very focused on letting vaccines do all the work. And I don’t think that’s enough,” Drobac said.

It is a dangerous strategy that relies on the unvaccinated, such as children, to become infected to create a “level of general immunity in the population from natural infection and vaccination,” he said. “The problem with this, of course, is that not only does it allow for an unacceptably high level of hospitalization and death, it may also not work,” he added.

As the UK prepares for new measures, Ireland is reluctant to remove restrictions on the pandemic amid a resurgence in cases, despite having one of the highest vaccination rates in Europe, at 92% of the total. fully vaccinated population, according to the ECDC.

During a press conference last Tuesday, Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said that the covid-19 vaccine passes will remain in force for hospitality and indoor events, that masks will remain mandatory in closed public spaces and that indoor hospitality will be limited to table service.

Europe must avoid suffering the closures and deaths of last winter again, said on Wednesday Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s health emergencies program. “We don’t know what the epidemic period will be in two or three months … we are going to have to be a little cautious … a little careful.”

Rob Picheta, Niamh Kennedy, Ivana Kottasová, Frederik Pleitgen, Hannah Ritchie, Sharon Braithwaite, Allegra Goodwin, and Katharina Krebs contributed to this article.