Europe restrictions may expand as the number of daily coronavirus cases throughout the region swiftly increases.
In France, there were 10,569 new infections reported on Sunday, according to Reuters. UK saw 4,000 new cases on Sunday, while Italy had around 1,000 new cases. Meanwhile, Germany recorded 1,345 new cases and a further 922 cases by Monday. Spain had around 4,700 new infections on Friday.
According to German Health Minister Jens Spahn, the increasing infections in countries like Austria, the Netherlands, and France appeared “worrying” and that Germany could eventually import cases from there, Reuters said.
Spahn noted that countries like Spain showed infection dynamics “that are likely out of control.”
“Expect lots more restrictions over the days and weeks ahead, especially in Europe,” Deutsche Bank analysts said in a note. “The fact that the virus is already spreading quite rapidly is a big worry.”
Covid-19 infections are increasing swiftly in Europe that the World Health Organization gave a warning last week that there was a “very serious situation” taking place in the region. The agency described this outbreak as a “wake up call.”
With this, authorities have imposed local restrictions in several parts of Europe to manage the outbreaks. Parts of northern England as well as areas of Spain’s capital, Madrid, are in lockdown.
Pandemic fatigue
Pandemic fatigue is considered the root cause of Covid-19 resurgence in several parts of Europe, particularly in Spain and France.
“There are some worrying trends that we’re starting to see,” said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the WHO’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit. “What is really worrying I think for us is that we’re not only seeing an increase in the case numbers, but we’re seeing an increase in the hospitalizations. We’re seeing increases in ICUs,” she said.
Moreover, Kerkhove noted the spikes in cases in several European countries, such as Georgia, Spain, France, Montenegro, and Ukraine. She mentioned that some American states have outbreaks as the flu season arrives and this may overcome the health system.
Meanwhile, intensive care units in hospitals in some parts of France are reaching their full capacity, according to Van Kerkhove. She added that hospitalizations are increasing twice every eight days in the United Kingdom.
“We haven’t even started to hit the flu season yet so we’re worried that these increasing numbers of hospitalization and ICU are really going to overburden an already burdened system,” she said on CNN.
“We have a very serious situation unfolding before us,” said WHO’s regional director for Europe, Dr. Hans Kluge.
“More than half of European countries have reported a greater-than-10% increase in cases in the past two weeks. Of those countries, seven have seen newly reported cases increase more than twofold in the same period,” he added.
