generalized turn of the screw from the south to the north of Europe

Friday December 17 at St Pancras Station, London (United Kingdom), thousands of passengers form huge queues to catch a Eurostar. Travel restrictions between France and the UK go into effect this Friday evening at midnight. Despite the reinforcement of the army in the vaccination campaign, the United Kingdom breaks records of contamination every day, with 93,000 cases in the last 24 hours. In Germany, the figures for the moment are not catastrophic, but vaccination has still been opened to children. The authorities expect the next few weeks to be extremely difficult.

The feverishness which seizes Europe has very concrete consequences, in particular on the border between France and Italy. Since Thursday 16, Italy has imposed negative PCR tests on anyone, even vaccinated, who wants to go to the country. For Italian traders, these new restrictions are not good for business. “It kills the business, we didn’t work like that the other years. Look, everything is closed“, regrets a shopkeeper.

The turn of the screw is therefore generalized from the south to the north of Europe. A week ago, Denmark took the first steps, for example encouraging teleworking. Without success: the cases doubled in eight days. On Friday, December 17, the government announced new restrictions. In the coming days, the list of European countries opting for health restrictions could grow even further.