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 Europe has again become the epicentre of the pandemic, prompting
some countries to consider re-imposing restrictions in the run-up to
Christmas and stirring debate over whether vaccines alone are enough
to tame COVID-19.
COVID-19 spreads more easily in the winter months when people gather
inside.
Europe last week accounted for more than half of the average 7-day
infections globally and about half of latest deaths, according to a
Reuters tally, the highest levels since April last year when the
virus was at its initial peak in Italy.
Governments and companies are worried the prolonged pandemic will
derail a fragile economic recovery.
Austria's conservative-led government said that about two million
people in the country of roughly nine million were now only allowed
to leave their homes for a limited number of reasons
https://www.reuters.com/business/
healthcare-pharmaceuticals/austria-orders-non-vaccinated-people-into-covid-19-lockdown-2021-11-14
like travelling to work or shopping for essentials.
But there is widespread scepticism, including among conservatives
and the police, about how the lockdown can be enforced - it will be
hard to verify, for example, whether someone is on their way to
work, which is allowed, or going to shop for non-essential items,
which is not.
"My aim is very clear: to get the unvaccinated to get vaccinated,
not to lock up the unvaccinated," Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg
told ORF radio as he explained the lockdown, which was announced on
Sunday.
The aim is to counter a surge in infections to record levels fuelled
by a full vaccination rate of only around 65% of the population, one
of the lowest in western Europe.
'STORM OF INFECTION'
Germany's federal government and leaders of Germany's 16 states are
due to discuss new pandemic measures this week.
Three German state health ministers urged parties negotiating to
form a new government to prolong the states' power to implement
stricter measures such as lockdowns or school closures as the
seven-day COVID incidence rate hit record highs.
Chancellor Angela Merkel urged unvaccinated people to reconsider
their decision in a video message on Saturday.
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 "Difficult weeks lie ahead of
us, and you can see that I am very worried,"
Merkel said, speaking in her weekly video
podcast. "I urgently ask everyone who has not
yet been vaccinated: please reconsider."
France, the Netherlands and many countries in
Eastern Europe are also experiencing a surge in
infections. Britain is to extend
its COVID-19 booster vaccine rollout to people between 40 and 49,
officials said on Monday, to boost waning immunity ahead of the
colder winter months.
Currently all people 50 and over, those who are clinically
vulnerable and frontline health workers are eligible for boosters.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that he saw no need to
move to a "Plan B" of mask mandates and vaccine passes, even though
he was cautious of rising infections in Europe.
"We're sticking with Plan A," he said in a broadcast clip on Monday.
"But what we certainly have got to recognise is there is a storm of
infection out there in parts of Europe.
"There is always a risk that a blizzard could come from the east
again as the months get colder. The best protection for our country
is for everybody to come forward and get their booster."
China, where the coronavirus was first identified in late 2019, is
battling the spread of its biggest COVID-19 outbreak caused by the
Delta variant, according to numbers announced on Monday, with
travellers from the northeastern city of Dalian where infections
have grown faster than elsewhere in the country subject to tough
quarantine rules in nearby areas.
Chinese authorities said 32 new domestically transmitted infections
with confirmed symptoms were reported on Sunday, most of which were
in Dalian.
The numbers in China are tiny compared to elsewhere in the world,
but Communist Party rulers in Beijing have taken a zero-tolerance
approach to infections, clamping down on clusters.
(Additonal reporting by Josephine Mason and Alistair Smout in
London, Emilio Parodi in Milan and Victoria Waldersee and Maria
Sheahan in Berlin; Writing by Nick Macfie, Editing by William
Maclean)
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