The second wave of the coronavirus has once again made Europe the epicenter of the pandemic. The number of daily infections has doubled in the past 10 days. In France, the virus is now spreading faster than it did during the first wave in spring, a government scientific adviser said. France and many other European countries could be forced to resort to lockdowns again. Hospitals in Europe are not yet overwhelmed by Covid 19 patients, but according to the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) they are constantly filling up.
The number of coronavirus patients in the UK and Belgium has doubled in the past two weeks. The Czech Republic has the highest number of hospital cases per capita, according to the ECDC, given the increasing number of sick healthcare workers. Poland and Bulgaria are also badly hit and people are more likely to be hospitalized in much of Europe than the US. It shows that the pandemic is still dangerous despite previous evidence that the virus has become less deadly or only affects the elderly.
In France, around 35 percent of ICU cases are under 65 years of age. Poland has turned its largest sports stadium into a temporary field hospital with 500 beds. Daily infections in Europe topped 200,000 for the first time on Thursday, beating the total number of infections in America, Brazil and India, Reuters reported. Many European countries reported their highest one-day case numbers this week.
Executives in France, Germany and other countries have warned that their health systems are under strain. Arnaud Fontanet, a senior scientific advisor to the French government, said the virus is now spreading faster than it did during its first outbreak. “The virus is circulating faster,” he warned, adding that fighting the disease would be “a marathon”. The government has extended the 9 p.m. coronavirus curfew to more than two-thirds of the French population.
The current surge in infections is partly due to more relaxed behavior over the summer when the numbers fell. Families went on vacation, students returned to universities and large gatherings resumed, which allowed Covid-19 to spread. Dr. Fontanet said French authorities had managed to get the virus under control by the end of June, with hospital stays low until the end of August, creating a false sense of security, although cases were increasing. “Then there was a cold week in September and all indicators across Europe were going in the wrong direction again.
The virus spreads better in the cold because we live more inside,” he said. Prime Minister Jean Castex has indicated that another lockdown is imminent if the pandemic is not brought under control.
He acknowledged the curfew was causing trouble and warned people to observe restrictions on social gatherings, maintain physical distance and work from home to avert the need for “much tougher action”. France, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia reported record numbers of daily coronavirus cases this week.
The French authorities reported an all-time high of 41,622 newly confirmed Covid-19 cases on Thursday, bringing the country’s seven-day average to 25,480 infections per day. Germany, which first reported more than 10,000 daily cases on Thursday, expanded travel warnings for Switzerland, Ireland, Poland, most of Austria and Italy, including Rome. In pharmacies in France and a number of other European countries, there is a lack of flu vaccines as people have followed government advice to get vaccinated to reduce the risk of potentially fatal “twine chemistry”.
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