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While Germany is increasingly worried about the increase in Covid-19 contamination in recent weeks, the United States revised travel recommendations on Monday, advising its citizens not to go there.
“Vaccinated, cured or dead” at the end of winter: Germany was deeply concerned on Monday about the rise in Covid-19 contaminations. Faced with this situation, Washington has changed its recommendations and now advises Americans not to go there.
The US State Department issued Tuesday, November 23 two bulletins falling to level 4, the highest level of warning, its level of alert concerning Germany and Denmark, indicating “a very high level of Covid-19 “, while Europe has once again become the epicenter of the pandemic.
Washington had already raised its alert level to level 4 in August concerning France, – since lowered to level 3 – then Switzerland, already because of the increased health risk in the face of the epidemic situation.
In a shocking phrase, German Minister of Health Jens Spahn warned that “almost everyone will be vaccinated, cured or dead” by “probably the end of winter” due to the spread of the very Delta variant “, very contagious “, which has been wreaking havoc for several weeks.
The number of new daily infections broke a record of more than 65,000 last week.
Current restrictions “no longer sufficient”, says Merkel
Chancellor Angela Merkel also warned of a “highly dramatic situation”. The current restrictions are “no longer sufficient”, she warned, just four days after having decided with her probable successor Olaf Scholz of severe coercive measures against the unvaccinated.
In Germany, as in neighboring Austria, the vaccination rate is less than 70%, a level lower than in other European countries such as France where it reaches 75%.
The Austrians, despite a strong grumbling expressed in the streets this weekend, are again confined until December 13. Shops, restaurants, Christmas markets, concerts and hairdressers lowered the curtain on Monday. But the schools remain open.
The return of restrictions provoked violence during the weekend in several European countries, notably in the Netherlands, where the Prime Minister denounced acts of “pure violence” on the part of “idiots”.
Vienna applies “radical” measures after “maintaining the fiction”
Since the vaccines were made available to as many people as possible, no country in the European Union had dared to take the plunge by imposing new confinement.
Former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz had declared the pandemic “over”, at least for those vaccinated.
Arrived in October, his successor Alexander Schallenberg “has maintained the fiction for too long” that all was well, comments political scientist Thomas Hofer, interviewed by AFP. Faced with the surge in cases which have reached unprecedented levels since the start of the pandemic, he had to resolve to “radical” measures that he had however initially excluded.
In addition to confinement, adult vaccination will thus become compulsory in 1is February 2022, which very few countries have implemented so far.
“I was hoping we wouldn’t get there, especially now that we have the vaccine. It’s dramatic,” says Andreas Schneider, a 31-year-old economist met by AFP in a shopping street in Vienna.
In Slovakia, where incidence rates are high, restrictions for unvaccinated people were introduced on Monday. “We have opted for strict containment of unvaccinated people because we have to protect them,” Prime Minister Eduard Heger said.
Mobilizations against measures in Europe
In France, Prime Minister Jean Castex tested positive on Monday. This resulted in the quarantine in Belgium of Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, who had received him earlier in the day.
Four other members of the Belgian government, who also participated in a Franco-Belgian meeting on Monday morning on security, “will also take a PCR test and remain in quarantine until the test result is negative,” the government said. Belgian.
In several European countries, protests against the tightening of anti-Covid measures continued over the weekend. However, they were not marked by violence as in Rotterdam on Friday and in The Hague on Saturday.
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With AFP and Reuters
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