Germans will be ‘vaccinated, cured or dead’ in a few months

Germans will be ‘vaccinated, cured or dead’ in a few months, health minister warns as country mulls compulsory jabs and Austria wakes up to life in lockdown amid Europe’s Covid crisis

Germans will be ‘vaccinated, cured or dead’ from Covid-19 in just a few months, the country’s health minister Jens Spahn warned today as he urged more citizens to get jabbed to protect themselves against the Delta variant.

The dire warning comes as Germany is racing to contain a record rise in coronavirus infections, with the country reporting 49,206 cases on Sunday – the highest number of new coronavirus cases since the beginning of the pandemic.

‘Probably by the end of this winter, as is sometimes cynically said, pretty much everyone in Germany will be vaccinated, cured or dead,’ Shahn said, blaming the contagious Delta variant. ‘That is why we so urgently recommend vaccination.’

The German health minister’s warning comes as Austrians woke up to a nationwide lockdown – a move which sparked fierce backlash as tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Vienna at the weekend to protest against the measures.

Austrians were not alone in their demonstrations as violent protests broke out across Europe at the weekend in the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Northern Ireland over anti-Covid measures aimed at stemming spiralling cases.

The Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte today slammed three nights of riots in several cities across the country as ‘pure violence’ by ‘idiots’ and vowed to prosecute those responsible.

Meanwhile, in Germany, politicians and health ministers are now debating whether to follow Austria’s example in making vaccinations compulsory, with some admitting that the move is ‘unavoidable’ amid a rise in infections.

ERMANY: People queue in front of the vaccination center in Frankfurt on Monday to get their coron

GERMANY: Traders dismantle figures from their stall at the closed Christmas market in Dresden, Germany, on Monday

AUSTRIA: The streets in Vienna are empty on Monday morning at the beginning of a nationwide lockdown

AUSTRIA: Austrians woke up on Monday morning to a nationwide lockdown with shops, restaurants and festive markets shut amid a fourth wave of the pandemic which is crippling the country’s hospitals and tripling the death rate

AUSTRIA: The nationwide lockdown – which had initially applied to the unvaccinated – stops Austria’s 8.9 million people from leaving their homes unless for specific reasons such as buying groceries, going to the doctor or exercising. The streets were empty on Monday

AUSTRIA: Police officers control the occupants of a vehicle at a check point at the German-Austrian border on Monday

Europe has become the epicentre of the pandemic once again, with the World Health Organisation warning that the Continent was the only region in the world where deaths had increased as Covid-related fatalities spiked by five per cent just last week

Europe has become the epicentre of the pandemic once again, with the World Health Organisation warning that the Continent was the only region in the world where deaths had increased as Covid-related fatalities spiked by five per cent just last week.

In Germany, the fourth wave is overwhelming hospitals, with health chiefs warning that the situation is ‘extremely critical’ in intensive care units across the country.

‘We have a very, very difficult situation in many hospitals,’ Spahn said.

Despite widespread access to free coronavirus vaccines, just 68 per cent of the German population is fully vaccinated, a level experts say is too low to keep the pandemic under control.

Outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany will need tighter restrictions to control a record-setting wave of infections after admitting that current measures are not enough to do so.

‘We are in a highly dramatic situation. What is in place now is not sufficient,’ Merkel told leaders of her German CDU party in a meeting.

On the issue of vaccine mandates, a spokesman for Merkel made clear that her government had no plans to tackle the thorny issue.

‘There is no decision about this now and it wouldn’t be taken by this government anymore,’ Steffen Seibert told reporters in Berlin.

Anger is mounting across Europe over the anti-Covid measures, which has seen thousands of people demonstrate in Austria, Switzerland, Croatia, Italy, Northern Ireland, Austria and North Macedonia on Saturday, a day after Dutch police opened fire on protesters and seven people were injured in rioting that erupted in Rotterdam.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Monday slammed three nights of unrest over anti-Covid measures as ‘pure violence’ by ‘idiots’ and vowed to prosecute those responsible.

The premier said riots in several cities around the country since Friday, which saw youths throw fireworks at police and vandalise buildings, ‘is pure violence under the guise of protest.

He added: ‘I will always fight for the right to demonstrate in this country. That is part of our democracy, of our rule of law, but what I will never accept is that idiots use sheer violence against the people who work for you and me every day… to keep this country safe under the guise of: We are dissatisfied.’

Last night saw 35,000 people descend on the Belgian capital Brussels to protest against new measures banning the unvaccinated from entering restaurants and bars.

The frustration is extending to as far as the Caribbean after France’s island Guadeloupe saw a week of violent protests following an announcement that coronavirus jabs would be mandatory for all healthcare workers.

In response, France has sent elite police and counter-terrorism officers to the French territory to help quell the unrest which saw clashes and looting.

It comes after the French government warned that the fifth wave of coronavirus infections are rising at ‘lightning speed’, with new daily Covid cases close to doubling over the past week.

THE NETHERLANDS: A worker clears glass from a destroyed bus shelter in Groningen on Monday after groups of people vandalised and set off fireworks during protests. The Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte today slammed three nights of riots in several cities across the country as ‘pure violence’ by ‘idiots’ and vowed to prosecute those responsible

BELGIUM: Demonstrators gather around Nord Train Station to protest against mandatory Covid-19 vaccine, in Brussels on Sunday

AUSTRIA: Protesters carrying a banner reading ‘Control the border. Not your people’ at the anti-lockdown demonstration held by the far-right Freedom Party in Vienna on Saturday

In Germany, a relatively low vaccination rate – hovering under 70 per cent – has left the country vulnerable to the virus.

Now, the country’s ministers and health chiefs are questioning whether compulsory vaccination is the answer to the worsening situation.

The President of the Robert Koch Institute, Lothar Wieler, said he sees mandatory vaccination as a ‘last resort’ and said Germany must think about compulsory vaccination.

He told ZDF newspaper: ‘The last resort, which is now being discussed again and again, is what is known as compulsory vaccination. And I’m with the World Health Organisation that we all don’t want that.

‘There is really no one who would like to have a mandatory vaccination. But if you have tried everything else, then the World Health Organisation also says that you have to think about compulsory vaccination.’

Meanwhile, Germany’s federal tourism commissioner Thomas Bareiß said the situation makes it clear that compulsory vaccination is ‘unavoidable’.

Bareiß told DPA news agency: ‘In retrospect, it was wrong not to see that right from the start. The hope at that time is understandable, but it was not realistic.’

His calls were echoed by the Prime Minister of Bavaria, where Covid cases have surged, who said ‘in the end we will not be able to avoid compulsory vaccination’.

The Health Minister of Bavaria, Klaus Holetschek, also said that while he had been an opponent of mandatory vaccinations, he now sees it as the only way to stop further restrictions and the spread of Covid.

He told Deutschlandfunk: ‘I believe that we can actually only get out of this endless loop if this mandatory vaccination is introduced.’

But others are not so sure, with the Prime Minister of Saarland, Tobias Hans, warning that compulsory vaccinations would divide society and spark protests, as Austria has seen in recent days.

Hans told Zeit Online: ‘The compulsory vaccination is not the debate that we need now,’ adding that not enough has been done ‘to really convince them that vaccination is the right way to go’.

Germany last week announced tougher coronavirus curbs to contain the worth wave, which has killed almost 100,000 people so far in the country, including 62 over the past 24 hours.

In regions with high hospitalisation rates, the unvaccinated will be barred from public spaces like cinemas, gyms and indoor dining.

Employees are asked to return to working from home whenever possible, while anyone going into the workplace has to prove they are vaccinated, recovered or have recently tested negative – a system known as ‘3G’.

The same rule applies on public transport in those areas.

Several of Germany’s hardest hit regions, including Bavaria and Saxony, have gone even further by cancelling large events such as Christmas markets and effectively barring the unvaccinated from non-essential public life.

All vaccinated adults have also been urged to get a booster shot to combat waning vaccine efficacy after six months.

Across the border in Austria, the streets were largely empty on Monday morning after the country entered a nationwide lockdown.

The nationwide lockdown – which had initially applied to the unvaccinated – stops 8.9 million people from leaving their homes unless for specific reasons such as buying groceries, going to the doctor or exercising.

The strict measures, which are set to last for 10 days but could extend to 20, comes as average daily deaths in Austria have tripled in recent weeks and some hospitals have warned that their intensive care units are reaching capacity.

Austria’s decision to enter a lockdown punctures earlier promises that tough virus restrictions would be a thing of the past. Over the summer, then-chancellor Sebastian Kurz had declared the pandemic ‘over’.

But plateauing inoculation rates, record case numbers and a spiralling death toll have forced the government to walk back such bold claims.

Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg apologised to all vaccinated people on Friday as he announced the measures, saying it wasn’t fair that they had to suffer under the renewed lockdown restrictions. Earlier, Austria had tried out a lockdown just for unvaccinated people but it did not slow infections enough.

Chancellor Schallenberg also announced last week that the country will introduce a vaccine mandate as of February 1. The details of how the mandate will work aren’t yet clear, but the government has said that people who do not adhere to the mandate will face fines.

The vow to make Covid jabs mandatory led the head of one of Austria’s main opposition parties, Herbert Kickl, to warn the country is ‘now a dictatorship’, while branding the move ‘unconstitutional’ and calling on the country’s top court to intervene.

After taking office in October, Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg criticised Austria’s ‘shamefully low’ vaccine rate – which is at 66 percent – and banned the un-jabbed from public spaces.

When that proved ineffective at squelching the latest round of infections, he announced a nationwide lockdown of 20 days, with an evaluation after 10 days.

Schools will remain open, although parents have been asked to keep their children at home if possible. Working remotely is also recommended.

Political analyst Thomas Hofer blamed Scahllenberg for maintaining ‘the fiction’ of a successfully contained pandemic for too long.

‘The government didn’t take the warnings of a next wave seriously,’ he said. ‘The chaos is evident.’

GUADELOUPE: The frustration is extending to as far as the Caribbean after France’s island Guadeloupe saw a week of violent protests following an announcement that coronavirus jabs would be mandatory for all healthcare worker. Pictured: The destruction left by the protests on Sunday

Meanwhile, Slovakia on Monday introduced restrictions for people unvaccinated against Covid-19, the health ministry said, as the central European country battles one of the world’s highest coronavirus infection rates.

Unvaccinated people are not allowed to enter stores other than those considered essential, such as grocery stores, drugstores or pharmacies – even with a negative coronavirus test.

‘We have resorted to a vigorous lockdown of the unvaccinated, because we need to protect them,’ Prime Minister Eduard Heger said earlier on public broadcaster RTVS.

Heger also said that he would propose to the government mandatory vaccination for senior citizens.

Slovakia has the world’s fourth-highest infection rate at 917 new Covid-19 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over the last seven days, according to an AFP calculation, after Slovenia, Austria and the neighbouring Czech Republic.

‘The high rate is due to many factors, the most important of which is that we have very few people vaccinated, ‘ Doctors Trade Union Association chairman Peter Visolajsky told AFP on Monday.

‘The adopted restrictions are still very weak, and they are not as effective as in the case of the previous variant of the coronavirus,’ Visolajsky said.

The expert said that better enforcement of the existing restrictions and ‘a more intensive vaccination could reduce the number of infections’.

‘Compulsory vaccination would be an important step in Slovakia but it must be medically justified,’ he added.

Last night, nearly 40,000 took to the streets of Brussels to protest against the return of strict anti-Covid measures banning the unvaccinated from entering restaurants and bars.

Some protesters were seen throwing projectiles at riot police and in response, officers fired water cannon and tear gas at the group. Police have made some arrests, but it is not immediately clear how many.

‘Unnecessary’ actions taken to contain Covid are causing democracies to ‘backslide’, report says
Democracy is deteriorating across the world, with countries including the US taking undemocratic and ‘unnecessary’ actions to contain the coronavirus pandemic, a report has warned.

‘Many democratic governments are backsliding,’ the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, or International IDEA, said.

The 34-nation organization added that as of August 2021, 64 per cent of countries have taken an action to curb the pandemic that it considers ‘disproportionate, unnecessary or illegal.’

Among the countries added to the annual list of ‘backsliding’ democracies for the first time is the US, which has undergone a ‘visible deterioration’ since 2019.

The report said the US was among countries which has imposed ‘measures that amount to democratic violations’, adding that the Covid-19 pandemic has ‘accelerated and magnified’ some of the negative trends.

The report pointed to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Oban’s right to rule by decree without time limit to manage the pandemic and the introduction of prison sentences of up to five years for spreading after the parliament passed a bill. Pictured: A man protests against Orban’s Covid-19 politcies on November 30, 2020

The Stockholm-based body added that the situation is also getting worse in countries that are not democratic. Autocratic regimes have become ‘even more brazen in their repression,’ free speech has been restricted and the rule of law has been weakened, it said.

In its flagship report on the state of democracy, International IDEA said the number of backsliding democracies has doubled in the past decade, and mentioned in particular the U.S., Hungary, Poland and Slovenia.

Alexander Hudson, a co-author of the report, said: ‘The United States is a high-performing democracy, and even improved its performance in indicators of impartial administration (corruption and predictable enforcement) in 2020.

‘However, the declines in civil liberties and checks on government indicate that there are serious problems with the fundamentals of democracy.’

The report said that ‘the two years since our last report have not been good for democracy,’ and the achievement reached when democracy became the predominant form of governance ‘now hangs in the balance like never before.’

‘Overall, the number of countries moving in an authoritarian direction in 2020 outnumbered those going in a democratic direction,’ the report said, adding that in the past two years, the world has lost at least four democracies, ‘either through flawed elections or military coups.’

In Europe, the pandemic ‘has placed a strain on democracy’ and some countries where democratic principles were already under threat, it provided an excuse for governments to weaken democracy further.

The report pointed to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Oban’s right to rule by decree without time limit to manage the pandemic and the introduction of prison sentences of up to five years for spreading after the parliament passed a bill.

Europe’s non-democratic governments – it identified Azerbaijan, Belarus, Russia and Turkey – have intensified their already very repressive practices, International IDEA said.

The pandemic broadened the pre-existing rift between high-performing democracies in Western Europe and weaker counterparts in Central and Eastern Europe,’ said Sam Van Der Staak, head of Program Regional Europe.

‘That divide will continue to challenge Europe´s unity, as it also faces greater outside pressure from non-democratic superpowers. But its increased democratic isolation also poses opportunities for greater integration and collaboration, as Europe is forced to consider the value of democracy as its core foundational force.’

‘This is the time for democracies to be bold, to innovate and revitalize themselves,’ International IDEA Secretary-General Kevin Casas-Zamora said in a statement.

In Asia, International IDEA said, Afghanistan, Hong Kong and Myanmar have suffered from ‘a wave of growing authoritarianism.’ But democratic erosion has also been found in India, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.

‘China’s influence, coupled with its own deepening autocratization, also puts the legitimacy of the democratic model at risk,’ the report said.

Two countries that were on the list last year – Ukraine and North Macedonia – were removed this year after their situations improved.

Two others, Mali and Serbia, left the list because they are no longer considered democracies.

While Myanmar moved from a democracy to an authoritarian regime, Afghanistan and Mali entered this category from their previous label of hybrid governments.

In Africa, democracy declines ‘have undermined remarkable progress made across the continent over the past three decades.’ The pandemic has added pressure on governments to respond to concerns regarding governance, rights and social inequality, it said. It also noted military coups in Chad, Guinea, Mali and Sudan.

The report also noted that half the democracies in the Americas have suffered democratic erosion, with notable declines in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador and the United States.

International IDEA bases its assessments on 50 years of democratic indicators in around 160 countries, assigning them to three categories: democracies (including those that are ‘backsliding’), ‘hybrid’ governments and authoritarian regimes.

For 2021, according to the group’s provisional assessment, the world counts 98 democracies – the lowest number in many years – as well as 20 ‘hybrid’ governments including Russia, Morocco and Turkey, and 47 authoritarian regimes including China, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Iran.

Adding backsliding democracies to the hybrid and authoritarian states, ‘we are talking about 70 percent of the population in the world,’ Casas-Zamora said.

‘That tells you that there is something fundamentally serious happening with the quality of democracy,’ he added.

The report said the trend towards democratic erosion has ‘become more acute and worrying’ since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

‘Some countries, particularly Hungary, India, the Philippines and the USA, have (imposed) measures that amount to democratic violations – that is, measures that were disproportionate, illegal, indefinite or unconnected to the nature of the emergency,’ the report said.

‘The pandemic has certainly accelerated and magnified some of the negative trends, particularly in places where democracy and the rule of law were ailing before the pandemic,’ Casas-Zamora said.

Putin tells Russia he had Covid booster jab

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday he had taken a third dose of a Covid vaccine, as the country struggled with a fresh wave of the virus.

‘I had it two hours ago,’ Putin said on state television channel Rossiya 24, assuring viewers that his booster injection of the Sputnik vaccine had been painless.

The authorities are struggling to convince people to get vaccinated against Covid, even as a fresh wave of the virus is killing record numbers every day.

Even though Russia has several vaccines that it has manufactured itself, only 36.7 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, according to the Gogov website, which tracks the data.

Putin, who said he opposes universal mandatory vaccination, has backed measures taken in some regions for certain people. For example, in June, authorities in Moscow said vaccination would be obligatory for anyone working in the service sector.

Russia recorded more than 9.3 million cases of Covid and just over 264,000 deaths, which makes it the worst-hit country in Europe.

The actual toll from the pandemic there was closer to 450,000 at the end of September, according to figures from the Rosstat statistics agency however, which works with a broader definition of Covid-linked deaths.

First German states cancel all Christmas markets over virus

The German states of Bavaria and Saxony on Friday cancelled all their Christmas markets and unveiled drastic curbs on public life as the country scrambles to contain soaring coronavirus infections.

‘The situation is very, very serious and difficult,’ Markus Soeder, premier of the southern state of Bavaria, said as he also announced a shutdown of clubs, bars and night service at restaurants.

The eastern state of Saxony unveiled similar measures and went even further by closing all sporting and cultural venues, banning tourism, public consumption of alcohol and barring the unvaccinated from non-essential shops and hairdressers.

Saxony premier Michael Kretschmer – whose state has Germany’s lowest vaccination rate at just under 60 percent of the population – admitted that many of the restrictions would affect the vaccinated as well.

But he said tough action was needed to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed and called for ‘solidarity’ from all citizens. ‘We need more ‘we’ and less ‘I’ in this pandemic,’ he told reporters.

Bavaria and Saxony are among the hardest hit regions in the ferocious fourth Covid wave sweeping Germany.

Reporting by AFP

Three people treated in hospital and inquiry launched after Dutch police fired warning shots during Rotterdam riots

Three people were being treated in hospital in Rotterdam on Saturday after they were seriously injured when Dutch police fired shots during a violent protest against COVID-19 measures, authorities said.

Crowds of several hundred rioters torched cars, set off fireworks and threw rocks at police during the protests on Friday evening. Police responded with warning shots and water canons.

Rotterdam police posted on Twitter on Saturday that 51 people had been arrested, half of whom were under 18.

‘Three rioters were wounded when they were hit by bullets, they remain in hospital,’ police added, in an update after earlier reporting two wounded.

Authorities are investigating the shootings including whether the wounded people where hit by police bullets, they added.

The city’s mayor, Ahmed Aboutaleb, said the protest had turned into ‘an orgy of violence.’

‘Police were forced to draw their weapons and even fire direct shots,’ he told a news conference early on Saturday.

Dutch Justice Minister Ferd Grapperhaus said in a statement the ‘extreme violence’ against police and firefighters in Rotterdam was ‘repulsive.’

‘The right to protest is very important in our society but what we saw last night was simply criminal behaviour,’ Grapperhaus said.

Protesters had gathered to voice opposition to government plans to restrict access to indoor venues to people who have a ‘corona pass,’ showing they have been vaccinated or have already recovered from an infection.

The pass is also available to people who have not been vaccinated, but have proof of a negative test.

Elite troops sent in to police France’s overseas territories amid looting and arson over Covid curfew

France sent dozens of elite police and counter-terrorism officers to its Caribbean island of Guadeloupe Saturday following looting and arson overnight in defiance of an overnight curfew.

The island’s prefect on Friday introduced the night-time stay-at-home order after protests against the coronavirus vaccine pass spiralled into violence the previous night.

But the measure did little to quell the rioting. ‘The night was very turbulent,’ a police source said.

The security forces recorded ‘some 20 incidents of looting or attempted robbery’ in the seaside towns of Pointe-a-Pitre and Le Gosier, including at a jewellery shop, a bank, a betting shop and a shopping centre.

In the town of Saint-Francois to the east, ‘gendarmes coming out of the station were threatened by blazing projectiles’.

A second source within the gendarmerie said an armoury had been looted.

The first source said ‘firearms were used against police forces in four different areas’ across the island, and one member was slightly wounded after a stone hit him in the face.

In the area of Le Petit-Bourg to the west, firemen had to put out fires in two mobile phone stores, which had also been plundered.

The interior ministry said 31 people had been arrested.

France late Saturday said it was sending around 50 personnel from both its RAID elite police force and its GIGN counter-terrorism unit to Guadeloupe.

The doctors’ union in Guadeloupe warned against further trouble while the health system was so ‘fragile’.

They criticised ‘individuals who may have prevented patients from getting access to treatment, or medical staff from reaching their place of practice’.

While most people in mainland France have now received two vaccination doses, rates in its overseas territories have lagged behind.

By November 16, some 46 percent of adults in Guadeloupe had received at least one jab of a vaccine against Covid.

Austria becomes first EU country to mandate jabs

Austria on Friday became the first EU country to announce it would make coronavirus vaccinations mandatory and will next week impose a partial lockdown in the face of spiralling infections.

The lockdown, which comes into effect on Monday, constitutes the toughest restrictions introduced in Europe in recent weeks as Covid-19 cases surge continent-wide, fuelled by vaccine resistance.

Austrians will not be allowed to leave home except to go to work, shop for essentials and exercise. The restrictions will initially last 20 days with an evaluation after 10 days, Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said.

Vaccination against Covid-19 in the Alpine nation will be mandatory from February 1 next year, Schallenberg said. So far, the Vatican alone in Europe has imposed a vaccination mandate.

The World Health Organization continues to favour policies that ‘demonstrate the benefit and safety of vaccines for the greatest possible acceptance of vaccines, rather than imposed mandatory vaccination,’ spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told reporters in Geneva.

Austria has already imposed movement restrictions on those not vaccinated or recently recovered from the virus, ordering them to stay at home since Monday, becoming the first EU country to do so.

But infections have continued to rise. On Friday, a new record of more than 15,800 new cases was recorded in the EU member of nearly nine million people.

Reporting by AFP

Britain’s SAGE adviser says UK WON’T see a spike in Covid cases but warns Europe lockdown riots are a ‘warning to us’

A SAGE adviser has moved to reassure Britons the UK will not see a spike in Covid-19 cases like Austria and Germany – but warned Europe’s lockdown riots should act as a ‘warning’ and urged people to get their booster jabs.

Professor John Edmund said today that opposition to stringent restrictions on the continent have demonstrated the importance of booster jabs, warning, ‘it is pretty clear immunity does wane’.

‘What you see now in central Europe with these rapid increase in cases, you see the importance of vaccination,’ Mr Edmund told Sky.

But Mr Edmund said the UK was unlikely to be hit by the Christmas chaos because the country ‘is in a slightly different position.’

He added: ‘Frankly here in the UK, we’ve had high rates of infection for many months now so we’re in a slightly different position to Austria and Germany and so on.

‘I don’t think things will quite happen in the same way here as they have done there. But it is a warning to us. I think it’s pretty clear that immunity does wane.

‘I’m sure you do still have some protection from the vaccine but it’s nowhere near as strong as shortly after you’ve been vaccinated. It’s very clear the booster doses do give a very clear boost to your immune system.’

Asked whether the Government should re-introduce control measures, Mr Edmund told Sky: ‘The plan B measures, we could’ve implemented them at any point. It’s a government decision whether to take that step.

‘They have to look at the potential effectiveness and measure that against the potential cost of some of those things.’

Covid-19 infections soar in the Czech Republic
Coronavirus infection rates in the Czech Republic have hit a new record for the second time this week, the Health Ministry said.

It announced that the daily tally jumped to 22,936 on Friday, almost 500 more than the previous record set on Tuesday.

The country’s infection rate has risen to 929 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days.

In a worrying sign, 110 people died on Thursday, the ministry said, with the daily death toll surpassing 100 for the first time since April.

The government has approved new restrictions to tackle the surge, targeting the unvaccinated in an effort to increase a vaccination rate that is below the European Union average.

Starting on Monday, most unvaccinated people will no longer be allowed to show negative coronavirus tests in order to attend public events, go to bars and restaurants, visit hairdressers, museums and similar facilities or use hotels.

Only people who are vaccinated or have recovered from Covid-19 will remain eligible. Overall, the nation of 10.7 million has registered almost two million cases with 32,005 deaths.

EU issues advice on using Covid-19 pill for adults
The European Union’s drug regulator has issued advice on using Merck’s COVID-19 pill for adults and began a review of a rival tablet from Pfizer to help member states decide on quick adoption ahead of any formal EU-wide approval.

In two separate statements on Friday, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) detailed efforts to advance use of the experimental but promising options, as infections and COVID-related deaths are rapidly rising in the region and forcing renewed lockdowns.

Merck’s COVID-19 tablet, Lagevrio, developed with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, should be given early and within five days of first symptoms to treat adults who do not need oxygen support and are at risk of their disease worsening.

It advised against treatment during pregnancy and for women who plan to or could get pregnant, while adding that breastfeeding must also be stopped around the time of using the pill, which is to be taken twice a day for five days.

Drugs in the same class as Merck’s Lagevrio have been linked to birth defects in animal studies. The drugmaker, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, has said animal testing shows its pill is safe, but the data have not been made public.

EMA said it was studying available data on the Pfizer pill Paxlovid, days after the drugmaker sought U.S. approval, adding that a more comprehensive rolling review was expected to start ahead of any approval. It did not specify when that review would be.

The EMA last month began a rolling review of the Merck pill and expects to conclude that evaluation by the end of the year.

Looming lockdowns weighed on a range of financial market sectors on Friday, pushing stocks and oil down and boosting the dollar.

‘We expect targeted measures (against COVID-19) across some countries mainly according to the health situation, but other factors, such as domestic political situations, will be relevant,’ Oxford Economics analysts said in a note.

‘And while it might take a while before a political consensus can be reached in other countries, it is clear that the tide has turned.’

As cases rise again, a number of European governments have started to reimpose limits on activity, ranging from Austria’s full lockdown to a partial lockdown in the Netherlands and restrictions on the unvaccinated in parts of Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Niels Van Regenmortel, the intensive care units coordinator at the ZNA Stuivenberg hospital in Antwerp, said there was an increasing risk hospitals in Belgium will have to resort to triage as ICUs fill up amid soaring COVID-19 numbers, calling on the government to restrict night life.

Whether or not countries opt to lock down again depends on a wide range of factors, including vaccination rates, mask mandates and the extent to which booster shots are being made available.

Germany has said further measures will be decided based on when hospitalisation rates hit certain thresholds, while Friday saw its first states – Saxony and Bavaria – cancel all their Christmas markets.

The Bavarian state capital of Munich on Tuesday had become the first major German city to cancel its Christmas market for the second year in a row. Saxony’s cancellations means the famed Dresden Christmas market is also scrapped.

Germany hosts some 2,500 Christmas markets each year, cherished by visitors who come to savour mulled wine and roasted chestnuts, and shop for seasonal trinkets among clusters of wooden chalets.

In pre-pandemic times, they drew about 160 million domestic and international visitors annually who brought in revenues of three to five billion euros ($3.4 billion to $5.6 billion), according to the BSM stallkeepers’ industry association.

In France, President Emmanuel Macron has made it clear he thinks high levels of vaccinations should be enough to avoid future lockdowns.

Britain, with higher numbers of infections than most countries in Europe, is rolling out third shots – or boosters – to offset waning protection from the first two and help keep the economy open.

While the new measures across Europe are not seen hitting the economy as much as the all-out lockdowns of last year, analysts say they could weigh on the recovery in the last quarter, especially if they hurt the retail and hospitality sectors over Christmas.

A full lockdown in Germany would be more serious, however.

‘With Germany… imposing new restrictions, any thoughts that the vaccines would offer a way to a more normal Christmas period appear to have gone up in smoke for now, in Europe at least,’ said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.

‘Although there is a nagging fear this could ripple out across the region.’ The pressure on intensive care units in Germany has not yet reached its peak, Spahn said, urging people to reduce contacts to help break the wave.

‘How Christmas will turn out, I dare not say. I can only say it’s up to us,’ he added.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday Germany will limit large parts of public life in areas where hospitals are becoming dangerously full of COVID-19 patients to those who have either been vaccinated or have recovered from the illness.

‘It’s clear from our experience in England and from what’s happening across Europe that while vaccines do a lot of the heavy lifting … other interventions are required to prevent case numbers rising,’ said Lawrence Young, virologist and professor of molecular oncology at the University of Warwick.

‘Less mask wearing, more mixing indoors due to colder weather and waning immunity are also contributing to the high case levels across Europe.’

Sweden, meanwhile, has the lowest Covid infection rate in western Europe — after double-vaccinated nationals were told they don’t have to test for the virus even if they get symptoms.

The Scandinavian nation — which was subject to international scrutiny last year when it refused to lockdown — is currently recording 85.4 cases per million people, according to Oxford University research site Our World in Data.

By comparison, the rate is nearly 1,400 per million in Europe’s current Covid capital Austria, which today announced it is going back into a full lockdown from Monday.

Sweden’s infection rate is far lower than other Western European countries like the Netherlands (1,048.7), Britain (581), Germany (536), and France (201).

And for the first time in the pandemic, Sweden is recording fewer cases per population size than its Scandinavian neighbours Denmark (655), Norway (351) and Finland (150).

But critics say Sweden has been left ‘in the dark’ over the true extent of its coronavirus wave because the double-vaccinated, equivalent to almost seven in ten people, are not being routinely swabbed.

Last week, Sweden broke ranks with its European neighbours once again and told Swedes they did not have to get tested if they were fully jabbed, even if they had symptoms. Covid swabbing rates plunged 35 per cent last week, compared to a month earlier.

But this week the policy was reversed in response to rising cases on the continent. A fresh wave of Delta is rolling across the continent and putting pressure on hospitals once again, which has forced most in the EU to bring back some form of curbs.

Latest figures show Sweden is only carrying out 1.26 tests per 1,000 people, which is also the lowest number in western Europe.

The threat of fresh lockdowns comes as optimism grows about experimental drugs developed by Pfizer and Merck that cut the chance of hospitalisation and severe illness, more weapons in the world’s fight against the virus.

On Friday, the EU drug regulator said it was reviewing data on Pfizer’s COVID-19 pill to help member states decide on quick adoption ahead of any formal EU-wide approval.

Slovakia has also seen a surge in infections, with 9,171 reported on Friday, its biggest daily tally since the pandemic began. The country of 5.5 million earlier in the week tightened restrictions on people who have not had COVID-19 shots.

With a seven-day incidence of 11,500 new cases per million inhabitants, the country has the worst reported epidemic situation in the world, according to Our World in Data statistics.

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