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Optimism is spreading in the United States as deaths from COVID-19 drop and states relax restrictions and open up vaccinations to young adults. But across Europe, fear is setting in with another wave of infections closing schools and cafes and causing further lockdowns.
The divergent trajectories of the pandemic on the two continents may be linked in part to the much more successful deployment of the vaccine in the United States and the spread of more contagious variants in Europe.
Health experts in the United States, however, say what is happening in Europe should serve as a warning against ignoring social distancing or giving up other safeguards too soon.
“Each of these countries has had nadirs like we have now, and each took an uptrend after ignoring known mitigation strategies,” said Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention the United States. “They just looked away from the ball.”
The result has been a sharp increase in new infections and hospitalizations in several European countries in recent weeks.
The rate of new COVID-19 cases in Poland has more than doubled since February, straining its healthcare system and leading to a three-week nationwide lockdown announced Wednesday for malls, theaters, galleries and centers sportsmen.
Italy has closed most of its classrooms at the start of this week and expanded areas where restaurants and cafes can only do take out or deliveries. Health experts nationwide say they are seeing increasing numbers of middle-aged and younger patients.
In France, officials have imposed weekend closures around the French Riviera to the south and the English Channel to the north, and are preparing new restrictions for the Paris region and possibly beyond which will be announced Thursday.
COVID-19 patients occupy 100% of standard intensive care hospital beds in the region surrounding the nation’s capital.
“If we do nothing, we are heading for disaster,” said BFM television Rémi Salomon, a senior official at the public hospital in Paris.
Serbia announced a nationwide lockdown 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, its highest number in months.
The trends are much more encouraging in the United States, which has recorded an estimated 537,000 deaths in total, more than in any other country.
Daily deaths in the United States have fallen to an average of just under 1,300, from a high of around 3,400 two months ago. New cases are running at around 55,000 a day on average after peaking at more than a quarter of a million a day in early January.
An empty hallway and row of unused face shields inside the closed COVID-19 intensive care unit at Mission Viejo, Calif., Mission hospital tells the story of the improved outlook for United States.
The wing was swarming with patients at the start of the year.
“It gives me goosebumps. 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, ”ICU nurse Christina Anderson said. .
The European Union’s overall immunization efforts are lagging far behind those of Britain and the United States due to shortages and other obstacles. About 1 in 5 people in the United States have received at least one dose, while in most European countries it is less than 1 in 10.
In another troubling turning point, many European countries – including Germany, France, Spain and Italy – have suspended use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine on reports of dangerous blood clots in a small number of recipients, although regulators say there is no evidence the coup is to blame.
Many European countries haven’t vaccinated quickly enough to stay ahead of the more contagious variants, said Dr Amesh Adalja, senior researcher at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore, Maryland. These variants are also required in the United States.
“Vaccination without speed limit, 24/7, is what will protect us from what is happening in Europe,” Adalja said.
Adalja said he believes it is too early for states to abandon mask warrants, but restaurants and other venues can start to gradually increase capacity.
“You don’t have to do what Texas did,” Adalja said. “You can increase the capacity while keeping the masks in place.”
Texas and a few other states have lifted their statewide mask requirements or plan to do so soon, while governors in more than half of the states have moved to ease further restrictions in the coming weeks. This includes allowing more people to go to restaurants, gyms and movie theaters.
Airlines, meanwhile, have had their best weeks since the start of the pandemic 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 optimism also had to come with caution.
“Europe’s rapid easing of distancing requirements in many places, combined with people lowering their guard as they gaze into the light at the end of the pandemic’s long tunnel, have helped pave the way for current outbreaks, ”he said.
The lesson for the United States, he said, is to continue to vaccinate those at risk as quickly as possible, keep an eye out for variants, and “stay slow and steady with easing requirements. social distancing”.
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Associated Press video reporter Eugene Garcia in California and AP reporters across Europe contributed to this report.
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