Optimism is spreading in the United States as deaths from COVID-19 plummet and states ease restrictions and open vaccinations for young adults. But across Europe, fear is setting in with another wave of infections that is closing schools and cafes and bringing new blockages.
The divergent paths of the pandemic on the two continents may be linked in part to the much more successful launch of vaccines in the United States and the spread of more contagious variants in Europe.
Health experts in the United States, however, say that what is happening in Europe should serve as a warning against ignoring social detachment or discarding other safeguards too soon.
“Each of these countries had its lowest point like the one we are experiencing now, and each has taken an upward trend after disregarding known mitigation strategies,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. from United States. “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, overburdening its health care system and leading to a three-week national 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 takeout or delivery. 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 around 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, to be announced on Thursday.
COVID-19 patients occupy 100% of standard intensive care hospital beds in the area around the country’s capital.
“If we do nothing, we will be heading for catastrophe,” Remi Salomon, a senior official at the Paris public hospital authority, told BFM television.
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.
The trends are much more encouraging in the United States, which has recorded about 537,000 deaths in total, more than any other country.
Deaths per day in the U.S. fell to an average of just under 1,300, down from an increase of about 3,400 two months ago. The new cases are at around 55,000 a day on average, after peaking at more than 250,000 a day in early January.
An empty corridor and a row of unused face shields inside the closed unit of the ICU COVID-19 at Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, California, tells the story of the improved outlook in the United States
The ward was crowded with patients earlier in the year.
“It gives me the creeps. 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, ”said ICU nurse Christina Anderson.
The European Union’s overall vaccination efforts lag far behind those of Britain and the United States due to scarcity and other obstacles. Approximately 1 in 5 people in the United States received at least one dose, while in most European countries, it is less than 1 in 10.
In another worrying turn, many European countries – including Germany, France, Spain and Italy – have suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine about reports of dangerous blood clots in a small number of containers, although regulators say there is no evidence that the blame is to blame.
Many European countries did not get vaccinated quickly enough to stay ahead of the most contagious variants, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior researcher at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore, Maryland. These variants are also occurring in the United States
“Vaccination without speed limit, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, is what will protect us from what is happening in Europe,” said Adalja.
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.”
Texas and a few other states have lifted their mask requirements across the state or plan to do so soon, while governors in more than half of the states have taken steps to ease other restrictions in the coming weeks. This includes allowing more people in restaurants, gyms and cinemas.
Airlines, in turn, have had their best weeks since the pandemic began and say more people are booking flights for spring and summer.
Josh Michaud, associate director of global health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington, said that optimism should also come with caution.
“Europe’s rapid relaxation in remoteness requirements in many places, combined with populations lowering their guard while looking at the light at the end of the long pandemic tunnel, helped prepare the ground for current outbreaks,” he said.
The lesson for the United States, he said, is to keep vaccinating people at risk as quickly as possible, to keep an eye out for variants and to “stay slow and steady with easing social distancing requirements.”
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Associated Press video journalist Eugene Garcia of California and AP reporters across Europe contributed to this report.