European nations scramble to contain latest infections
BOCHNIA, Poland — European countries raced Monday to tamp down a surge in COVID-19 cases and ramp up vaccinations, hoping to spare hospitals from becoming overwhelmed by the pandemic’s latest deadly wave of infections.
The crush of coronavirus patients has been relentless for hospitals in Poland, where daily new infections hit records of over 35,000 on two recent days and the government ordered new restrictions to prevent large gatherings over the long Easter weekend. France’s health minister warned that the number of intensive care unit patients could match levels from a year ago.
But in a sign of the disparities from one country to the next, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that barbers, gyms and outdoor bar and restaurant patios would be able to open next week after the country reported progress with vaccines and its recent lockdown.
The British government announced that all adults and children will be able to have routine coronavirus tests twice a week as a way to stamp out new outbreaks. The tests are being introduced as Johnson announces the next steps in the country’s road map out of its three-month lockdown.
Britain has recorded almost 127,000 coronavirus deaths, the highest toll in Europe. But both infections and deaths have fallen during the lockdown and since the start of a vaccination campaign that has given a first dose to 6 in 10 adults.
Meanwhile, the U.S. vaccination campaign kept accelerating, with 40 percent of the nation’s adult population receiving at least one dose.
On Sunday, coronavirus patients filled almost all of the 120 beds at the County Hospital of Bochnia, 25 miles east of the southern city of Krakow.
One patient, Edward Szumanski, 82, voiced concern that some people still refuse to see the virus that has killed over 2.8 million people worldwide as a threat. More than 55,000 of those deaths have occurred in Poland.
“The disease is certainly there, and it is very serious,” he said.
The more contagious and more aggressive virus variant identified in Britain is fueling much of the increase in Europe.
Meanwhile, voters are angry at their own governments’ handling of the pandemic and the failure to prevent repeated spikes in infections.
France’s health minister, Olivier Veran, warned Monday that the number of COVID-19 patients in the country’s intensive care units might match the level of the first crisis a year ago. Speaking on TF1 television, he said the country could approach the ICU saturation levels of April 2020, when French ICUs held more than 7,000 virus patients.
Veran expressed hope that France’s new infections could peak this week thanks to new partial lockdown measures. “We will manage,” he said.