Europe alarmed at rising US COVID numbers

With confirmed coronavirus cases in the US hitting five million Sunday, by far the highest of any country, the failure of the most powerful nation in the world to contain the scourge has been met with astonishment and alarm in Europe.

Perhaps nowhere outside the US is the bungled virus response viewed with more consternation than in Italy, which was ground zero of Europe’s epidemic.

Italians were unprepared when the outbreak exploded in February, and the country still has one of the world’s highest official death tolls at 35,000.

But after a strict nationwide, 10week lockdown, vigilant tracing of new clusters and general acceptance of mask mandates and social distancing, Italy has become a model of virus containment.

Much of the incredulity in Europe stems from the fact that the US had the benefit of time, European experience and medical know-how to treat the virus that the continent itself didn’t have at first.

Yet, more than four months into a sustained outbreak, the US reached the five million mark, according to the running count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

Health officials believe the actual number is perhaps 10 times higher, or closer to 50 million, given testing limitations and the fact that as many as 40 per cent of all those who are infected have no symptoms.

Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza hasn’t shied away from criticising the US, officially condemning as “wrong” Washington’s decision to withhold funding from the World Health Organization.

The US has the world’s highest death toll of more than 160,000. Due to its politicised resistance to masks and its rising caseload, European nations have barred American tourists and visitors from other countries with growing cases from freely travelling to the bloc. France and Germany are now imposing tests on arrival for travellers from ‘at risk’ countries, the US included.

But Europe isn’t out of the woods. Hard-hit Spain, France and Germany have seen infection rebounds with new cases topping 1,000 a day, and Italy’s cases inched up over 500 last Friday. Britain is still seeing an estimated 3,700 new infections daily.