An empty street in Porto during lockdown (Image: GETTY IMAGES)
European governments are easing Covid-19 rules to keep hospitals, schools and emergency services running as the more contagious but less deadly Ômicron option changes its approach to the pandemic.
While the record increase in infections has yet to peak in Europe, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the time was right to start assessing the disease’s progression by “different criteria”.
The mass return of children to school after the Christmas holidays is evidence that few want to return to the online learning that marked some of the first waves of infection.
Even as France has seen a record seven-day average of about 270,000 cases per day, it has relaxed testing protocols for school-age children, saying many classes have closed.
In Uganda, students have returned to institutions closed for nearly two years. The lockdown has helped bring the pandemic under control – with only 3,300 deaths recorded – but the government estimates that about a third of students will never return.
“We faced temptations,” said 16-year-old Rachel Naluanga, happily returning to school because many of her former classmates are working on new jobs or looking after children. “It was not easy to stay safe at home for a long time, but I thank God,” she told Reuters in the town of Kayonga.
European governments also imposed severe lockdowns in the early stages of the pandemic – causing massive damage to economies – but now they want to avoid that, knowing that Ômicron is putting far fewer people in hospitals, not least because many or most of them are being vaccinated.
Countries are also experiencing immediate staff shortages in essential services as Ômicron leads an increase in positive tests.
In France, the number of people hospitalized with Covid-19 rose by 767, the largest jump since April 2021, although the total number of 22,749 is still about two-thirds of the peak set in November 2020.
The United Kingdom has begun using the military to bolster health services and its largest private healthcare company has warned it may need to move treatments, including cancer surgery.
Spain was bringing back retired doctors. In Italy, the challenge of testing nearly 13,000 absent health care workers positive for Covid-19 due to suspensions for not being vaccinated has compounded.
The United Kingdom, Switzerland, Spain and Belgium have reduced quarantine periods and made it easier for employees to return to work.
