Thread by @FLAHAULT

1/15 - “More than a year after the start of the pandemic, Europe is enduring a grim spring. #COVID19 infections, hosp and deaths are rising in many countries [...] with a more infectious variant, a shortage of vaccines and public weariness with lockdowns.”
ft.com/content/d1af35…

2/15 - “In 2 weeks, the number of recorded new cases in France had risen 55% to about 38,000 a day. This 2-week growth compares with a rise of 95% in Belgium and 48% in the Netherlands; in Germany, they have risen 75%. Part of this increase reflects an expansion in testing.”

3/15 - “The latest pandemic surge in Europe, triggered by the spread of the now dominant B.1.1.7 strain of the virus first noted in England, is often called a “third wave”, but observed across the continent as a whole it is more like a confused sea.”

4/15- “With older people prioritised for vaccines, it is no longer only the aged who are fighting for their lives in intensive care units across Europe. “Now it’s middle-aged and also younger patients who must be ventilated,” Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a podcast on Friday.”

5/15 - “In Spain and Italy, the situation is also deteriorating. “With the English variant, despite all the restrictions in place, we have not had the drop in new cases that we had hoped for,” said Giovanni Leoni, vice-president of the Italian doctors’ federation.”

6/15-“Eastern Europe is also hard hit. In Poland, the third wave of the pandemic has been the worst so far, driving daily infections to record levels. There are now more people on ventilators and in hospital with #COVID19 in PL than at any time since the pandemic began in China.”

7/15 - “In the Czech Republic, cases have started to fall after the government launched a strict lockdown in the wake of a late February surge. Cases in Slovakia have also peaked.”

8/15 - “A slow rollout of vaccines has constrained the ability of the 27 member states — which carried out joint procurement of the jabs — to control the pandemic. This is in sharp contrast to the rapid rollout in Israel, the UK and the US.”

9/15 - “Member states need to be ready for an acceleration in the delivery,” an EU official said. “The logistics must follow, and this is their responsibility. They must start now organising mass vaccination and vocal campaigns to convince citizens to go to get a vaccine.”

10/15 - “Hungary — which has recently been suffering the most deaths per capita in the EU and has one of the world’s highest #COVID19 fatality rates — is with more than 20 per cent of people having received at least one jab. This compares with 12.5 per cent across the EU.”

11/15 - “Countries such as JP, SK, AUS and NZ had imposed aggressive suppression strategies for health reasons and they have economic outcomes that are much better than the EU’s because they have returned more quickly to normal life after halting the spread of the disease.”