‘It Is Terrifying’: Europe Braces For Lengthy Battle With Covid-19

Further curbs are underway by governments desperate to avoid a repeat of blanket lockdowns that brought some control in March and April but strangled economies.

“We are all afraid,” said Maria, a 73-year old pensioner in the Slovakian town of Dolny Kubin, where officials were piloting a testing scheme. “I see what’s happening and it is terrifying.”

Belgium, another of the worst-hit countries, whose foreign minister went into intensive care this week, further limited social contact and banned fans from sports matches.

In the Czech Republic, with Europe’s highest per capita infections, Prime Minister Andrej Babis moved to sack his health minister for apparently flouting rules on masks after a meeting in a restaurant that should have been closed.

In Spain, which passed the 1 million case milestone earlier this week, two regions, Castilla and Leon and Valencia, urged the central government to impose night-time curfews.

‘FOLLOW PRECAUTIONS’

Official data shows Spain already has the highest number of cases in Europe but the real picture may be even worse, according to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who said a nationwide antibody study suggested the total may be over 3 million.

“If we don’t follow precautions, we are putting the lives of those we love most at risk,” he said.

How long governments will be able to resist lockdowns is uncertain. The governor of Campania, the southern Italian region around Naples which has already imposed a curfew and shut schools, called for a total lockdown, saying “half measures” were not working.

“It is necessary to close everything, except for those businesses that produce and transport essential goods,” Vincenzo De Luca said.

While health services have not so far been overwhelmed to the extent they were in the first wave, authorities have warned of a likely surge in demand for intensive care beds as colder weather forces more people indoors and infections spread.

Italy’s top public health body said the situation was approaching critical levels in many regions and said complete tracing of contact chains had become impossible.

With its own hospitals under increasing strain, the Netherlands began transferring patients to Germany again, after dozens were treated in its larger neighbour during the earlier phase of the crisis.

But public support seen at the start of the crisis has steadily eroded amid a welter of often contradictory public information on the latest restrictions and growing fears about the economic costs.

Underlining the threat, a business survey showed service sector companies cutting back heavily as more and more consumers stayed home, raising the likelihood of a double dip recession this year in Europe’s single currency zone.