Filenews 7 July 2021
In a race to speed up vaccination campaigns, countries in Europe are engaged in order to prevent the rapid spread of the Delta variant, which is gaining ground all the time, so that the wings of hospitals with severely diseased crowns do not fill up again.
The sense of urgency in Europe coincides with the summer holiday season and the summer weather, which gives wings to mass gatherings, with incomplete or no protective measures, especially among young people, with governments offering various incentives and invoking citizens' sense of patriotism in order to make the vaccine.
The risk of infection with the Delta variant is "high to very high" in states with poor vaccination coverage, according to the European Centre for Infectious Disease Control, which monitors developments in 30 countries on the Old Continent and estimates that by the end of August this mutation will cover 90% of cases in the European Union.
"It is very important that the vaccination campaign proceeds very rapidly," the ECDC warned.
On the same wavelength and the warning from the WHO and the head of its technical team for the Covid-19.
Maria von Kerkove stressed that this variant "exponentially" increases infections, as daily cases increase significantly in countries such as Britain - four times as many confirmed last Friday, compared to the previous week.
Germany: Suggestions for fines for those who do not go to vaccine appointments
In Germany, many politicians are looking with concern to the immediate future, next autumn, because of the Delta variant, and there is growing debate about whether to fine people who make appointments for vaccines and do not show up.
The candidate chancellor of the Christian Democrats, Armin Laschet, rejects such a prospect: "You cannot blackmail solidarity with penalties," he told Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland, responding to a recommendation from the Social Democrats' health expert, Carl Lauterbach, but also to that of the CDU Economic Council, which called for "pocket-in-pocket fines" for those who close the path of vaccination to others.
37.9% of Germans have so far had both doses of covid-19 vaccines and 55.6% at least one dose. Bavaria's Prime Minister, Marcus Zedder, demanded that the national Vaccination Commission (Stiko) consider when to recommend vaccinating young people (e.g. pupils), as the highest rates of cases are found at young ages, as he told Bild am Sonntag.
Alarmed at the reluctance of some citizens to make the vaccine appears and the industry of the economy.
"It is every citizen's moral duty to make the vaccine. Vaccine deniers who have no health reasons behave irresponsibly," said The Foreign Trade President, Anton Berner, stressing that "the possibility of making vaccination mandatory should be seriously discussed."
On the other hand, the Greens reject such a possibility, and call for better promotion of the vaccination campaign, with mobile groups in schools, cultural centres, youth hangouts, etc. and incentives that will bend the hesitation of many.
France: Mandatory vaccinations
As France's finance ministry prepares for the tabling of the 2022 budget, which will be presented next September, concerns about the pace of growth are multiplying and there is a risk that the latest reforms that Emmanuel Macron aspires to make in the run-up to the 2022 presidential elections will blow up.
The rapid spread of the Delta mutation on French territory, accompanied by a decrease in vaccination rates, sows fear of a fourth wave of Covid-19 pandemics since September.
"For the past week, the epidemic has been gaining ground, especially the Delta mutation, which is highly contagious, particularly alarming," government spokesman Gabriel Atal said Monday, July 5.
At the end of June, the Pasteur Institute had also expressed concern about the emergence of the fourth wave since the autumn if vaccinations remained stagnant.
French Health Minister Olivier Veran also branded it a "bell" for the Delta mutation. "For the past five days, the virus has not been decreasing, growing and multiplying. Judging by Britain, the new pandemic wave could be here by the end of July," he said. As early as the beginning of July, Mr. Veran warned of "a new threat that could come to ruin our holidays in the summer as well."
The recent rise in cases is causing a cold sweat in the leading echelons of the French government. This is because France has not reached the threshold of collective ias. At the moment, just over half of the French have had one dose of vaccine and only a third of the population has received both doses.
"We need to speed up vaccinations. It's a race," Mr. Veran said.
However, the faster the Delta mutation progresses, the rate of vaccinations decreases, pushing the government to consider the mandatory vaccine for medical and nursing staff.
Currently, only 57% of nurses in aged care units have been vaccinated in France and 65% in hospitals, unlike in Italy, where 98% have been vaccinated, because the vaccine is mandatory for this category of workers.
Spain: Restrictions on nightclubs
There is also a sharp increase in cases in Spain, especially among young unvaccinated, aged 12-19, at a time when the country is struggling to attract foreign tourists to restart its economy.
In the last two weeks cases in Spain have reached 204 per 100,000 and the authorities hope the vaccination programme that is under way will act as an embankment in the fifth wave of the pandemic.
However, some regions in Spain are bringing back into force, a few weeks after they were lifted, restrictive measures on nightlife.
Fearing that the spread of cases of the infectious variant would bring health systems to their knees, health officials in several parts of the country are also trying to reach people under 30 and persuade them to make the vaccine for Covid-19, as the vaccination campaign has so far focused mainly on older and more vulnerable groups.
Britain: Johnson deaf to experts' calls to extend some measures
Despite the ominous developments in Britain, with the rapid increase in cases, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, deaf to scientists' calls to maintain some measures to prevent the country from becoming a "nursery" of future mutations, announced yesterday that the remaining restrictions on 19 July - "Freedom Day", as he described it - would be lifted in a test of whether the rapid vaccination programme offers adequate protection against the Delta variant.
Johnson confirmed that the government aims to mark the end of the restrictive measures on July 19, with a final decision expected next week.
As the British Prime Minister said, the step of lifting the measures will eliminate the limits on the number of people in social gatherings, the directive on home work and the mandate to use masks.
