Optimism is spreading in the US as deaths from Covid-19 plummet and states ease restrictions and open vaccinations for younger adults. But across Europe, fear is setting in with another wave of infections, which are closing schools and cafes and bringing new roadblocks.
The divergent paths of the pandemic on the two continents may be linked in part to a much faster launch of vaccines in the United States and a greater spread of contagious variants in Europe.
Health experts in the United States, however, say that what is happening in Europe should serve as a warning against dismissing safeguards too soon, as many of the same variants are already spreading in the United States at lower levels.
“Each of these countries had its lowest point like the one we are experiencing now, and each has taken an upward trend after ignoring known mitigation strategies,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (CDC) of the USA. “They just took their eyes off the ball.”
The result has been a marked increase in new infections and hospitalizations in several European countries in recent weeks.
The rate of new cases of Covid-19 in Poland has more than doubled since February, straining its health care system and leading to a national three-week blockade announced on Wednesday for shopping malls, theaters, galleries and sports centers.
Italy closed most of its classrooms earlier this week and expanded areas where restaurants and cafes can only deliver or deliver. The country’s health experts say they are seeing an increasing number of middle-aged and younger patients.
In France, authorities have imposed weekend blockades on the French Riviera in the south and the English Channel in the north, and are preparing new restrictions for the Paris region and perhaps beyond. Covid-19 patients occupy 100% of standard intensive care hospital beds in the area around the nation’s capital.
Serbia announced a national blockade for the rest of the week, closing all non-essential stores and businesses. The country of 7 million people reported more than 5,000 new cases on Tuesday, the highest number in months.
In comparison, new infections and hospitalizations are decreasing in the US, even though the country has the worst number of deaths in the world. More than 537,000 Americans have died since the pandemic began.
Deaths in the United States fell to an average of just under 1,300 a day, from an increase of about 3,400 in January. At the same time, about 55,000 people a day are being infected, a rate much lower than the quarter of a million people infected each day in early January.
Still, new infections and hospitalizations appear to have reached a level only slightly lower than the peak of infections in the summer of 2020, a time when the coronavirus dominated much of the Sun Belt, from Florida to southern California.
“Each time we hit a new and unprecedented increase in this epidemic, we quickly normalize it,” said Kumi Smith, an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota, Vox.
In addition, Texas and Mississippi have rescinded mask mandates and capacity limits in most public life environments, even when it is known that variants that have taken over Europe are spreading there. Meanwhile, airlines have had their best weeks since the pandemic began and say more people are booking flights for spring and summer.
“Vaccination without a speed limit, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, is what will protect us from what is happening in Europe,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior researcher at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Safety in Baltimore , Maryland.
Adalja said he believes it is too early for states to withdraw mandates from the masks, but that restaurants and other places may begin to gradually increase their capacity. “You don’t have to do what Texas did,” said Adalja. “You can increase the capacity while keeping the masks in place.”
Vaccination in the European Union lagged far behind vaccines in Britain and the United States because of a shortage of vaccines and other obstacles. Approximately one in five people in the USA received at least one dose of the vaccine, while in most European countries, it is less than one in 10. Of three vaccines authorized in the USA, two require a two-dose regimen.
Josh Michaud, associate director of global health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington, said that “Europe’s rapid relaxation in distance requirements in many places, combined with populations letting their guard down as they look at the light at the end of the long tunnel pandemic, helped prepare the ground for current outbreaks ”.
Several European countries have also suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, including Germany, France, Spain and Italy. The United States has not authorized the AstraZeneca vaccine, although there is controversy over a 100 million-dose purchase agreement.
Joe Biden is pressing all states to suspend vaccine eligibility requirements until May 1. Removing the eligibility criteria would allow almost all adults and children over 16 to be vaccinated. Most doses of vaccines purchased by the federal government are due to be delivered in early July.
Even with cases remaining high, expanding vaccine availability and declining infection rates have led to cautious optimism and a renewed sense of hope in the United States.
An empty corridor and a row of unused face shields inside the closed Covid-19 intensive care unit at Mission hospital in Mission Viejo, California, tell the story of improved perspectives. Earlier this year, the ward was filled with Covid-19 patients.
“It gives me the creeps,” said Christina Anderson, an ICU nurse. “It’s really surreal because, you know, a month and a half ago, our unit was full of super, super sick Covid patients, many of whom didn’t survive.”