Europe spooked by virus spread imposes new measures but England relaxes its coronavirus rules England relaxes its coronavirus rules
European residents woke to new Covid-19 measures yesterday as the Delta variant marches across the continent.
The French president imposed vaccine certification measures for most leisure activities and said healthcare workers must be vaccinated by September 15 or face suspension.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the country needed a much greater firewall of vaccination against rising infections but ruled out a French-style shift to compulsory vaccinations. The Delta variant now represents more than 60 per cent of new infections in France, pushing President Emmanuel Macron into making new announcements of restrictions on those who are not vaccinated.
Hundreds of thousands of people in France have rushed to make Covid-19 vaccination appointments after Mr Macron said that those who are unvaccinated would face restrictions.
He said that vaccination would not be compulsory but that new rules would focus on those who are not inoculated.
From August, anyone who wants to go out to eat or drink, visit a shopping centre, attend a festival, explore a museum, or go to a theatre or cinema, must show proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test.
Mr Macron was not alone in pulling back from looser guidelines. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologised for hastily removing most restrictions after infections quadrupled in a week.
The Delta variant has also driven an increase in infection rates in Spain, Portugal and Cyprus.
The strain is also dominant in Germany, Austria, Belgium and Denmark.
In Italy, health officials believe the variant will account for most new cases in 10 days.
During a visit to the body leading Germany’s Covid response, the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, Mrs Merkel said the pandemic was not over and that a fourth wave of infections is under way.
However, she appeared to take a cautious stand against renewed lockdowns.
“The central question is how many people get vaccinated,” she said. “The more we are vaccinated, the freer we will be again – vaccination also means that higher incidences can be managed.
“A vaccination not only protects you, it also protects someone who is close to you, someone you love.”
Germany has relaxed many restrictions on social gatherings in recent months, but people are still required to show negative test results or vaccine certificates to dine indoors or attend indoor events where capacity is limited. Masks are still required in shops.
Moving in the opposite direction are the English authorities, going ahead with a July 19 removal of remaining Covid-19 restrictions.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has overseen one of the world’s fastest inoculation drives and his hopes rest on this largely breaking the link between infections and serious illness.
Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said England was an outlier in Europe where other major economies were tightening curbs in response to the highly contagious variant.
“England is embarking on an almost unprecedented experiment, relaxing restrictions at a time when infections are going up. The nearest recent example was the Netherlands, where the prime minister has apologised for a lack of judgment and relaxations have been reversed,” he told The National
“The English decision is widely viewed as inexplicable in scientific terms.”
Prof McKee said Mr Johnson’s decision to remove all legal coronavirus restrictions and move to a voluntary system was “driven by politics”.
“As a result, the message is now extremely confused. Essentially, people are told that they do not have to obey rules but ministers hope they will,” he said.
“In much of the rest of Europe governments are following well-tried epidemiological principles in the face of a new and much more transmissible variant.”
Elsewhere, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced yesterday that more than half of all adults in the EU were now fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
The English decision [to relax Covid-19 measures] is widely viewed as inexplicable in scientific terms
PROF MARTIN MCKEE
Public health expert