Idafe Martin
08/13/2020 - 18:00
- Clarín.com
- World
Europe watches with apprehension as the leaves fall on the calendar and the dreaded return to student and work activity in September is approaching after the August vacation break. The first days of September will be the return to work for millions of Europeans and, above all, the return to kindergarten, school and university for tens of millions of children and young people, just when governments fear the hit of a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
The data of new infections are increasingly worrying . In some countries, such as Germany and the Netherlands, they are living in recent days with the worst infection data since May. France and Belgium generalize the use of chinstraps. Spain seems a plague in Europe with thousands of new infections every day.
The health situation is not that of March and April, but the governments are tempting their clothes. French Prime Minister Jean Castex summed it up on Tuesday: "I say it clearly, if we don't react together , if we expose ourselves to the risk of the epidemic returning, this time it will be difficult to control." Europe fears that a second wave will mix with the common flu season and put healthcare systems on the ropes again.
Kindergartens, schools and universities
Meanwhile, protocols are designed so that the educational system is put into operation, knowing that since a positive case appears in a classroom, dozens of children will have to be quarantined and dozens of their parents who will not be able to go to work.
Those over 12 years old must wear chinstraps in almost all schools in Europe, in some countries, such as Spain, from the age of six. Many governments are studying measures to relieve the pressure on the education system, such as doubling shifts (half a class will go to school in the morning and another half in the afternoon, as many Spanish regions will do), doing as much as possible outdoors and hiring more teachers so that student groups are smaller and a positive affect less.
Galicia prohibits smoking in public places if there is no distance of two meters. Reuters photo
Most universities will continue to bet on remote systems as far as possible , a kind of transfer to the online world of European higher education, a bet of which its academic results are not well known.
Chinstraps
At the beginning of the pandemic, Europeans hardly wore chinstraps. And their governments barely recommended them, in part because there were not enough for the entire population and they had to be allowed to not lack for health personnel. With its importation and national production assured, its use has become widespread, to the point of becoming mandatory . France and Belgium were the last to bet on massive use.
The French government, even without making it mandatory throughout the country, is pushing for its citizens to put on their masks as soon as they leave home. Precisely what the Brussels region did by law on Wednesday: mandatory chinstrap from the moment you set foot on the street, even when riding a bicycle.
More infections
The data of the last days worry the health authorities. Taking those of Tuesday, in France they approach 1,000 new infections per day, in Spain they touch 5,000 new cases daily during the last week, placing Spain in the worst current situation in Europe . Germany on Tuesday added more than 1,000 new infections in one day for the first time in weeks. A "worrying" number, for German Health Minister Jens Spahn. Thousands are the new daily cases in the United Kingdom, although it is precisely the British government that seems most determined in Europe to normalize economic and educational life.
Italy seems for the moment to avoid the worrying situation of its European neighbors . The Italian health authorities maintain data of new infections in a few hundred a day, they have less than 40 patients in intensive care and their daily deaths do not reach ten.
In London, people eating outdoors. EFE
After more than 35,000 deaths, its authorities consider that surveillance and contact tracing of new cases are working as a strategy to contain a new expansion of the pandemic. With data from the World Health Organization last week, Italy counted 7.7 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants while that figure went to 24.3 in France, in Germany to 11.9, in Belgium to 52.5 , in the Netherlands at 23.2 and in Spain at 76.6.
Sweden and its unique strategy
The Swedish government decided early in the pandemic that its strategy would be different from the rest of Europe. He never confined the population, he did not close schools, bars or shops. He did not recommend wearing chinstraps and his only recommendation was to maintain physical distance between people.
The data destroys your way of dealing with the pandemic . It still registers more infections than its neighbors: almost 40 new daily cases per 100,000 inhabitants while Norway counts 5.7, Finland 2.9 and Denmark 14. Its economy, according to data for the second quarter, fell as much as that of its neighbors (- 8.6%, comparable to the blow received by Norway, Finland or Denmark). Sweden has a five-month pandemic 20 times more fatalities than its neighbors. The government is slowly beginning to recognize that its strategy was a mistake.