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Health

New Covid wave has arrived in Europe, WHO says

New Covid wave has arrived in Europe, WHO says

Scotland fans arrive at King’s Cross Station on June 17, 2021 in London, England. Soccer games, taking place during the Euros, have been blamed for a rise in Covid cases numbers.

Rob Pinney | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images

A new wave of coronavirus cases could soon arrive in Europe, the World Health Organization warned Thursday, highlighting that a decline in the number of infections in the region has now come to an end.

“A 10-week decline in the number of Covid-19 cases in the 53 countries in the WHO European region has come to an end,” Hans Kluge, the WHO’s regional director for Europe, warned in a press briefing.

“Last week the number of cases rose by 10% driven by increased mixing, travel, gatherings and an easing of social restrictions,” he said.

The rise in cases comes against a backdrop of a “rapidly evolving situation,” Kluge said, given the new delta strain, which was dubbed a variant of concern by the WHO in May.

Millions remain unvaccinated in Europe, Kluge warned, with protection against the delta variant provided, for the most part, by having two doses of the Covid vaccines on offer. Kluge reiterated what the data has already shown, that the delta variant is far more transmissible than the alpha variant (which itself was more transmissible than previous strains).

Read more: The fast-spreading delta Covid variant could have different symptoms, experts say

“Delta overtakes alpha very quickly … and is already translating into increased hospitalizations and deaths,” Kluge said. He said the delta variant would be dominant in the WHO European region by August, while vaccinations would still not have caught up.

“By August, the WHO European Region will be ‘delta dominant,'” he noted, adding that 63% of people are still waiting for their first shot, while restrictions on public life are likely to be lifted by next month. The U.K., for example, which has a high vaccination rate but also a large number of cases caused by the delta variant, plans to end restrictions on July 19.

Read more: The Covid delta variant has ‘exploded’ in the UK — and it could be a blueprint for the U.S.

Kluge said that three conditions were now in place for “a new wave of excess hospitalizations and deaths” before the fall: new variants, a deficit in vaccine uptake and increased social mixing.

“There will be a new wave in the WHO European region unless we remain disciplined, and even more so when there is much less rules in place to follow,” he warned.

Medical staff member Mantra Nguyen installs a new oxygen mask for a patient in the Covid-19 intensive care unit (ICU) at the United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas.

Go Nakamura | Getty Images News | Getty Images.

Rise in infections

Kluge’s comments come amid a worrying rise in Covid infections across Europe despite efforts to curtail travel from high-risk regions.

Others are now following the U.K., with France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Russia among a group of countries seeing an increasing number of Covid cases being caused by the delta variant, particularly among younger, unvaccinated or not yet fully vaccinated people.

Read more: Europe wants to stop the Covid delta variant. But experts say it may already be too late

Increased mixing, particularly given the delayed UEFA Euro 2020 soccer tournament that’s currently being held across the Continent, has not helped prevent the spread of the variant with gatherings and crowds as matches are being played.

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Health

Europe’s third coronavirus wave has arrived

Europe's third coronavirus wave has arrived

Traffic runs along the Champs-Elysee avenue near the Arc de Triomph in Paris, France on Friday March 19, 2021. French President Emmanuel Macron lockdowns several regions, including the Paris area, and slows the country’s economic recovery as it battles to contain a third wave of the coronavirus epidemic. Photographer: Cyril Marcilhacy / Bloomberg via Getty Images

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

LONDON – Warnings of an exponential increase in infections in Germany and another month-long lockdown in Paris have underscored the dire situation across Europe as the coronavirus rises again.

The variant first discovered in Great Britain is seen as the reason for the new tip. The strain is reported to be much more virulent than the original.

The French capital and the northern parts of the country will be locked again on Friday, although schools and important shops remain open.

The seven-day average of new coronavirus cases in the country rose to over 25,000 this week for the first time since November.

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced a loosening of the locks in March. At that point, the number of infections per 100,000 people over seven days was 65.

But that number is now at 96 and there are real fears that infections at Easter might mirror what they were at Christmas.

“The increasing number of cases could mean that we will not be able to take any further opening steps in the coming weeks,” said Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn at a press conference on Friday, according to Reuters.

“On the contrary, we may even have to go backwards.”

In Poland, according to Reuters, there was also a huge increase in infections with around 52% of new cases related to the variant from Great Britain.

The total number of cases for the country that was advanced was 2 million as of Friday, 25,998 in the last 24 hours.

– CNBC’s Bryn Bache contributed to this article.

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Health

Faculties vowed a safer spring, however then college students, and variants, arrived.

Colleges vowed a safer spring, but then students, and variants, arrived.

With nearly a year of coronavirus experience, executives at many universities across the United States have ushered in the new phrase of pledging not to repeat the mistakes of last year as infection rates rose at the sites and in the surrounding communities.

While most schools have committed to increasing the number of tests, it is an expensive proposition at a time when many are struggling financially and not all students test as often as recommended by public health experts.

Plans to keep the virus under control, for example at the University of Michigan, which had more than 2,500 confirmed cases by the end of the fall semester, included increasing testing, more online classes, restricting dorms to one inmate, and offering none Tolerance for rule violations. The school has announced more than 1,000 new virus cases since January 1.

Other universities across the country have also encountered obstacles to a smooth springtime, including the unexpected challenge of emerging variants that have been held in recent days at the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Miami, Tulane University in New Orleans, and the University of California were discovered. Berkeley – and the more common problem of unruly students.

At Vanderbilt University in Nashville, students returning after the winter break had to be tested on arrival and were then asked to avoid social interactions while waiting for results. But some had other ideas.

“We have identified a group of positive Covid-19 cases associated with students who do not adhere to the rules for arriving on site,” reported a campus-wide email on January 23, in which two student organizations for the violation of protocols was held responsible. “More than 100 students are now in quarantine.”

The foundation of most spring semester university plans is on reinforced testing to identify infected students before they show symptoms and then place them in isolation. The test spike has increased since July, when a study recommended testing students twice a week to better identify asymptomatic infections.

The American College Health Association later adopted the idea and issued guidelines in December. “For spring, we strongly recommend that all students be tested on arrival and twice a week if possible thereafter,” said Gerri Taylor, co-chair of the organization’s Covid-19 task force.

Ms. Taylor said her organization didn’t know what percentage of schools had accepted the recommendations, and a survey of colleges across the country found a variety of requirements ranging from voluntary testing to mandatory testing twice a week.

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Business

A Week Into Brexit, the Ache for U.Okay. Companies Has Arrived

A Week Into Brexit, the Pain for U.K. Businesses Has Arrived

“The things that turn out to be problematic are the things that we expected to be problematic,” Ms. Jones said. “Merchandise is all about the speed and accuracy with which people prepare the right documents.”

Many UK companies – at least 150,000 according to the UK Tax Service – have never traded outside the European Union and therefore have no experience of dealing with customs systems.

The situation in Northern Ireland is an additional wrinkle. Northern Ireland will remain partially in the European Union’s internal market, an exception that avoids a border with the Republic of Ireland but creates a border in the Irish Sea. Logistics experts say Trader Support Service, a free government service that helps businesses fill out customs forms to ship goods from England, Wales and Scotland to Northern Ireland, is overwhelmed.

Some companies anticipated cross-border problems with Europe and stocked up on stocks – such as auto parts and pharmaceuticals – before the end of the Brexit transition period. This has kept cross-border shipments at a fraction of their normal levels. In the next few weeks, when these stocks run out, business will pick up and delays exacerbated.

Another new problem facing large retailers with international locations is “rules of origin” which determine whether a product leaving the UK is “British enough” to qualify for duty free trade with the European Union. International retailers using UK locations as distribution centers are now finding that they cannot automatically re-export their products to their stores in the European Union without paying tariffs – even if the product is off the block.

For example, a company could not import jeans from Bangladesh or cheese from France into a hub in England and then forward it to a store in Ireland without export duties. The UK retail consortium said at least 50 of its members have faced such tariffs. Debenhams, a large but now bankrupt department store chain, has closed its Irish website due to confusion over trading rules.

As companies strive to catch up on the rule changes, what is Britain doing with the sovereignty and freedom it secured before leaving the European Union? The government has to decide how much it wants to deviate from the European rules, where it might want to deregulate and whether it wants to pay the price.