COVID-19 is again surging in Western Europe due to a “perfect storm” of governments lifting restrictions, waning immunity and the more contagious BA.2 Omicron subvariant of SARS-CoV-2, experts said on Monday.
After more than a month of falling cases across much of the continent, nations such as France, Germany and Italy have all seen a dramatic resurgence of infections.
In France, cases have risen by more than one-third in the week since the government ended most restrictions on Monday last week.
Photo: EPA-EFE
In Germany, despite a new daily record of nearly 300,000 infections on Friday, the government let national legislation enabling disease prevention measures expire over the weekend.
However, most German states, which have considerable leeway on applying measures, have maintained their restrictions.
In Italy, the government announced on Thursday that it would phase out almost all restrictions by May 1 despite rising cases.
In the UK, where one in 20 people are infected, the government removed the last of its international travel restrictions on Friday.
Faced with its own surging cases, Austria announced on the weekend that it would reimpose rules requiring people to wear masks — just weeks after lifting the measure.
While some have blamed governments for relaxing restrictions too quickly, epidemiologists also pointed the finger at the BA.2 Omicron subvariant, which has become dominant in many nations.
Sometimes called “stealth Omicron” because it is more difficult to detect, BA.2 is estimated to be about 30 percent more contagious than its predecessor BA.1.
Lawrence Young, a virologist at the University of Warwick in England, said that rising cases in Europe were due to a combination — “a perfect storm” — of three factors: the lifting of restrictions, waning immunity after vaccination and BA.2.
“Removing restrictions has fueled the spread of BA.2 and could also lead to the generation of other variants,” Young said.
University of Geneva Institute of Global Health director Antoine Flahault said there were “a couple of hypotheses on the table, which are not mutually exclusive.”
He said that BA.2 was “clearly a relevant suspect in explaining the current rebound,” also mentioning waning immunity and the easing of disease prevention measures.
He also pointed to air pollution in western Europe during the infection resurgence, referring to research that showed “strong correlation” between COVID-19 outbreaks and high levels of fine particulate matter in the air.
Simon Clarke, cellular microbiology professor at the University of Reading in England, said that despite soaring cases in the UK, “concern about the virus among the public seems to be at an all-time low since the start of the pandemic.”
“The BA.2 version of Omicron seems to be behind this uptick in infections, which again shows how quickly the situation can change as the virus evolves into new forms,” Clarke told the Science Media Centre.
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
‘THEY KILLED HOPE’: Four presidential candidates were killed in the 1980s and 1990s, and Miguel Uribe’s mother died during a police raid to free her from Pablo Escobar Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe has died two months after being shot at a campaign rally, his family said on Monday, as the attack rekindled fears of a return to the nation’s violent past. The 39-year-old conservative senator, a grandson of former Colombian president Julio Cesar Turbay (1978-1982), was shot in the head and leg on June 7 at a rally in the capital, Bogota, by a suspected 15-year-old hitman. Despite signs of progress in the past few weeks, his doctors on Saturday announced he had a new brain hemorrhage. “To break up a family is the most horrific act of violence that
North Korean troops have started removing propaganda loudspeakers used to blare unsettling noises along the border, South Korea’s military said on Saturday, days after Seoul’s new administration dismantled ones on its side of the frontier. The two countries had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who is seeking to ease tensions with Pyongyang. The South Korean Ministry of National Defense on Monday last week said it had begun removing loudspeakers from its side of the border as “a practical measure aimed at helping ease
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
RSS