The haze of the coronavirus epidemic is covering the whole world. Following British Prime Minister Johnson and US President Trump, French President Macron, 42, became the latest Western leader to announce a diagnosis.
According to several European media reports such as Sky News Network and AFP, Spanish Prime Minister Sánchez, Portuguese Prime Minister Costa and other European dignitaries announced self-isolation due to their contact with Macron.
Recently, the epidemic in Europe has rebounded rapidly, and the epidemic in Germany once showed an “index growth” momentum. In view of the serious situation, many European countries have launched Christmas season epidemic prevention plans, and even Sweden, which has been “Buddhist anti-epidemic”, admits that it has “wrongly adopted the strategy of preventing and treating the novel coronavirus”.
European public health experts have called for caution before mass vaccinations are carried out, otherwise they are likely to face a third wave of epidemics.
The development of the epidemic is “worrisome”
On the evening of December 17th local time, French President Macron attended the humanitarian assistance policy meeting by video, which was his first appearance after confirming that he had contracted the novel coronavirus.
AFP reported that Macron in the picture was very tired, but did not show cough symptoms. French government spokesman Attar previously revealed that Macron felt symptoms late at night on the 16th and immediately self-quarantined.
According to the Elysee Palace statement, according to the time when the symptoms appear, Macron was “very likely” to be infected while attending the EU summit in Brussels last week. At that time, 25 EU leaders attended the meeting.
The news of Macron’s diagnosis triggered a series of chain reactions in European politics.
Several European dignitaries who have come into contact with may have urgently tested for COVID-19 or announced the start of a seven-day self-quarantine.
According to Reuters, the German government said on the 17th that Prime Minister Merkel’s coronavirus test results were negative.
In addition, an Irish government spokesman revealed that his Prime Minister Mike Martin’s COVID-19 test result was negative, but he would “restrict his trip”; Spanish Prime Minister Sanchez, who had lunch with Macron this week, will be quarantined for seven days; Portuguese Prime Minister Costa and Belgian Prime Minister DeCró also entered self-isolation. ; Charles Mitchell, President of the European Council, also announced the cancellation of public activities and self-quarantine.
The Wall Street Journal said that France is one of the European countries hardest hit by the coronavirus epidemic, and the news of Macron’s diagnosis undoubtedly hit the country further.
On December 18th, local time, according to data released by the French Public Health Agency (SPF), in the past 24 hours, there have been 15,674 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 264 new related deaths in France.
So far, the cumulative number of confirmed cases in France has exceeded 2.44 million, and the cumulative number of deaths has exceeded 60,000. According to the data, 24,977 coronavirus patients in France are currently being treated in hospitals, of which 2,773 are being treated in intensive care units. At the epidemic briefing on the 17th, the French General Health Commissioner Salomon said that the development of the epidemic situation in France was “worrisome”.
“Herd immunity” completely bankrupt
Macron was diagnosed and the alarm of the epidemic in Europe was sounded again. According to AFP, as of 15:00 GMT on the 17th, Europe became the first region in the world to have more than 500,000 coronavirus deaths.
More than half of the number of coronavirus deaths in Europe comes from five countries, namely Italy, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and Spain.
As the epidemic continues to spread, some European countries have fantasized about responding to the epidemic through the so-called “herd immunity law”, the most typical of which is Sweden.
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, Sweden has adhered to the so-called “herd immunity law”. Earlier this year, when many European countries fought against the epidemic through lockdown, Sweden adopted “Buddhist” epidemic prevention policies, such as schools, bars, restaurants, etc., remained open, and did not require people to wear masks.
As a result, the epidemic situation in Sweden is deteriorating, not only becoming the worst epidemic in northern European countries, but also becoming the hardest hit area in Europe.
The number of COVID-19 intensive care patients has increased. Sweden has also been listed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as Europe’s worst country in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
Seeing the worsening of the epidemic, the Swedish government introduced new restrictions in late November, changing the relevant recommendations to a clear ban.
Swedish Prime Minister Levin announced a number of measures to prevent the further deterioration of the coronavirus epidemic on December 18. The Swedish Public Health Service made a proposal to wear masks for the first time on epidemic prevention and control on the same day.
According to the data released by the Swedish Public Health Agency on the 18th, there have been 10,335 new confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, with a total of 367,120 confirmed cases; 103 new deaths, with a total of 8,011 deaths.
According to statistics from Johns Hopkins University, Sweden’s new confirmed cases exceeded 20,000 on the 15th, setting a record for the new single day since the epidemic.
“I think we failed. There are many deaths, which is terrible. According to the BBC, King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden admitted in a televised speech on the 17th that the anti-epidemic policy was “failed”.
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Levin agreed with the country’s king, “There is no doubt that the fact that many people have lost their lives is indeed a failure.”
“High risk” still needs to be vigilant
Confirmed cases remain high, and EU countries place their hopes on vaccines.
European Commission President von der Leyen called on the 16th that 27 EU member states launch coronavirus vaccination on the same day to show solidarity.
The next day, von der Leyen announced via social media that EU countries would launch coronavirus vaccination from December 27 to 29.
The Guardian reported on the 15th that on the issue of vaccines, Germany has made it clear that it hopes that the vaccine will be approved before Christmas.
German Health Minister Spahn said that if the European Drug Administration can complete the emergency use of the coronavirus vaccine approval before Christmas, Germany is expected to start vaccination on December 27 this year.
However, public health experts are calling for caution until mass vaccinations are launched, especially when Christmas and New Year holidays are approaching. If we relax our vigilance, Europe may face a third wave of epidemic. Recently, WHO also warned that the European region will face a “high risk” of another outbreak of the novel coronavirus in early 2021.
As the Christmas holiday approaches, many European countries have begun to implement a new round of strict lockdown measures to prevent the spread of the epidemic.
Germany, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic have successively introduced relevant policies to prohibit large gatherings and stop non-essential commercial activities from the second half of December this year to January next year.
France resumed a curfew on the 15th local time in response to the coronavirus epidemic. French Prime Minister Castel said on the same day that it was impossible to determine when restaurants would reopen because the epidemic was still continuing.
According to the French official arrangement, people will no longer need travel certificates during the day from the 15th. However, due to the resumption of the curfew from the 15th, people still need travel certificates to go out during the curfew.
In the UK, both Wales and Northern Ireland have announced that they will launch regional stay-at-home lockdown measures immediately after Christmas. Among them, the blockade in Northern Ireland began on December 26 and lasted six weeks.
The blockade in Wales has been launched since December 28. Scotland will also re-examine future epidemic prevention measures next Tuesday, and does not rule out restarting stay-at-home orders.
“If we had too much contact right now on Christmas Eve and ended up being the last Christmas we had with our grandparents, then we must have done something wrong and shouldn’t let that happen.” German Chancellor Merkel, with tears in her eyes and hands clasped, begged the people to abide by epidemic prevention measures.
