The newest Covid-19 outbreak is wreaking havoc on Europe, with a number of nations reporting record numbers of daily illnesses, forcing partial lockdowns, and tightening restrictions on unvaccinated persons.
On Thursday, Germany set a new record by reporting more than 65,000 new cases, with health experts warning that the real number of cases maybe two or three times higher.
More than 20,000 new cases were reported in the neighboring Netherlands on Wednesday, setting a new record for the third day in a row, and in France, where a fifth wave of the pandemic is underway, the number of new cases surpassed 20,000 on Wednesday, a level not seen since Aug. 25, according to Reuters.
In Belgium, new Covid regulations demanding working from home and the wearing of indoor masks have been announced, in the midst of one of Europe’s fastest increases in infection rates.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo, speaking to CNBC’s Silvia Amaro on Wednesday, said that while there was an increase in instances, it was not as catastrophic as past waves due to extensive immunization.
Covid permits or passports, which indicate an individual’s Covid status, are becoming more common throughout Europe (whether one is vaccinated or recovered from a virus). However, they are not without controversy, as such cards are causing an increasing number of public locations — from clubs and movie theatres to Christmas markets — to become divided, with admission allowed to vaccinated persons but denied to the unvaccinated.
Germany’s states have largely been free to determine their own Covid responses and public health measures, resulting in varying responses to the pandemic from state to state, though the government has sought temporary powers to impose lockdowns and other restrictive measures on areas with high infection rates.
According to Deutsche Welle, Thursday’s new Covid case tally of 65,371 new cases is the first time the figure has surpassed 60,000 in a single day since the epidemic began. Lothar Wieler, the chairman of the country’s infectious disease agency, the Robert Koch Institute, was also quoted as saying that the real number of cases may be far higher.
The underreporting of genuine statistics is becoming more prevalent.
The fact that Germany is witnessing such a dramatic increase in cases is concerning, especially given that the country was generally commended for its early response to the Covid epidemic.
Widespread testing and tracking, as well as a sophisticated healthcare network, have helped the nation preserve mortality rates substantially lower than its neighbours, albeit the margin has shrunk.
According to statistics provided by Johns Hopkins University, it has recorded over 5.1 million instances of the virus. And about 100,000 fatalities to far. In comparison, France had approximately 7.3 million cases and somewhat more than 118,000 fatalities.