At that point the US rate of new cases per capita dwarfed Europe’s by nearly three to one. While European governments were plotting their roadmaps towards normality, America was battling a rise in infections and warning of pressure on hospitals.
But by Monday, when the new rules came into effect and thousands of tourists jetted across the Atlantic to American cities, the two regions had experienced a dramatic reversal in fortunes.
Infections are rising in most of the countries that make up the Schengen area, the 26-country bloc where entry rules to the US have been relaxed. Travelers from the United Kingdom and Ireland were also included in the American policy shift.
“We are at another critical point of pandemic resurgence,” WHO regional director Hans Kluge said last week, warning that the pace of transmission across the region was of “grave concern.”
“According to one reliable projection, if we stay on this trajectory, we could see another half a million COVID-19 deaths in Europe and Central Asia by the first of February next year,” Kluge warned, adding that 43 of the 53 countries on his patch could also see high or extreme stress on hospital beds.
Europe’s current wave has not resulted in as high a death rate as the US’ summer spike. But it serves as a reminder of the cyclical nature of the pandemic, experts said.
“The situation across Europe was to be expected in some respects. We did anticipate there would be a surge in cases around this time of year,” said Paul Wilmes, a professor at the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine.
And others note that the relative success of some highly vaccinated nations such as Spain and Portugal — where cases have remained at manageable levels despite the general upward trends across the continent — can serve as an example to governments in Europe and elsewhere.
“It’s happening in many countries, but it’s not inevitable,” said Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical…
Source : cnn
