(Paris) Faced with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, France announced Thursday a tightening of the constraints, without re-containment or curfew, while Germany, hit by its most violent wave of contaminations, has crossed the threshold of 100,000 deaths.
South African scientists announced Thursday that a new variant of COVID-19 with an “extremely high” number of mutations and with a “potential for very rapid spread” had been detected in the country.
Europe once again became the global epicenter of the pandemic this fall, while the highly contagious Delta variant reduced the effectiveness of vaccines against the transmission of the disease to 40%, according to the WHO.
“Every day counts”, warned German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who wants an additional turn of the screw in her country and has let her successor Olaf Scholz know.
COVID-19 has caused the death of more than 1.5 million people on the continent, according to an AFP count made from official reports. The WHO has warned that COVID-19 could kill 700,000 more there by the spring.
In total, the coronavirus has killed more than 5.16 million people worldwide since the end of 2019. The WHO estimates that by considering the excess mortality directly and indirectly linked to COVID-19, the toll of the pandemic could be two to three times higher.
But a report released by the organization also shows that vaccines have saved at least half a million lives in Europe.
“In some countries, the number of deaths would have been double what it is today without vaccines,” WHO Regional Director for Europe, Hans Kluge, told Copenhagen in Copenhagen, urging countries to continue their immunization campaigns.
In France, where COVID-19 has killed more than 118,000 people, it is at this stage considered “neither containment nor curfew”, announced Thursday the Minister of Health Olivier Véran.
“Skip this wave”
“We can pass this wave without resorting to the most restrictive tools,” said the French minister, himself a doctor.
However, he announced the return of the obligation to wear a mask everywhere indoors in places open to the public, from Friday, including in places where the health passport is requested (restaurants, shopping centers, places of entertainment, etc. museums…).
Prime Minister Jean Castex was himself absent from the Council of Ministers on Wednesday because he tested positive for COVID-19.
In Austria, the authorities took the decision a few days ago to confine, a measure of unprecedented severity in Europe since the start of vaccination campaigns.
Other “confinements”, in reality less strict, had already been decreed in other countries such as Latvia and the Netherlands. Additional restrictions have been put in place in Italy, Slovakia, where almost total containment came into effect on Thursday, in the Czech Republic where the government has declared a period of state of emergency of thirty days, with the closure in particular of Christmas markets and nightclubs.
In France, the vaccine booster against COVID-19, most often in the form of a third dose, will be “open to all adults from 5 months after their last injection”, from this Saturday.
In Martinique and Guadeloupe, in the French West Indies, the challenge of the anti-COVID-19 vaccine, mixed with social demands related to the cost of living, has provoked violence, including gunfire against firefighters and the police. Roadblocks hamper the activity of these two islands.
Stepping up measures is also under consideration in the Netherlands, where health restrictions have already caused riot nights.
Pfizer for kids
For Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, who will urgently organize a meeting on Friday to decide on new measures, the increase in contamination and hospitalizations linked to COVID-19 is “higher than the most pessimistic curves” outlined last week by scientific experts.
A former model pupil, Germany is facing its strongest wave as a new government prepares to take office.
More than 100,000 people have died there from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. 75,961 new contaminations were counted on Wednesday.
The new coalition is counting on the generalization of the health passport in transport and access restrictions for the unvaccinated, for example for cultural places, and vaccination.
A billion euros will also be released in favor of nursing staff and nursing assistants.
For its part, the European Commission recommended Thursday the administration of a booster dose no later than nine months after the second dose of vaccine to strengthen the European health passport, the validity of which would no longer be recognized without this booster.
And Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine has been approved for children aged 5 to 11 by the European medicines regulator, paving the way for vaccination among this age group in the EU.