The Rise Of Variants In Europe Goes On To Show Just How Dangerous The Virus is!

Nothing is quite right with Europe where it comes to the persisting Coronavirus situation. Perhaps there’s hardly a day where on doesn’t read about a Germany or France, Italy or Switzerland grappling with night lockdowns and enhanced measures to take the fight to the pandemic. Forget not the fact that it was around this time last year where one of the world’s most coveted and glorious continents was still coming to grips with just what the COVID 19 menace was, with mounting troubles still at some length.

Then came spring and it was then, in 2020, that Europe actually became the epicentre of the COVID 19 virus in the world. And then this year, several months after the world has come to embrace an antidote to the existence of the epidemic, the continent is swelling with new cases and many a casualty.

Now here’s some vital information if you weren’t all that aware of just where Europe currently stands with the mess:

The rise in new cases across the continent is largely down to a surge in a new variant that was first seen in Britain.

This new variant is known as the B.1.1.7

The trouble concerning the new variant is that not only is it more contagious when compared to the last year’s virus, but in fact, deadlier.

Here’s something that’s even worse: the variant is currently spreading to 114 countries, Europe being the centre of its birth.

But all of that being told, are Europe’s worries only tied to the above? What’s hurting it ever so more.

Make no mistake about the fact that while several of its economies were already badly hit with economic woes, the fact that there’s lockdown in place just does not help things at all.

What hasn’t helped the entirety of the continent is the fact that at a time where the rise in new cases in Britain was ever so visible, the hospitals reaching peak capacity, the lawmakers in continental Europe, it is believed, were slow to react.

So how was this? Let’s take an example from the beating heart of Western Europe:

It wasn’t all that long ago where somewhere around January, French President Macron turned down calls from his scientific advisors to institute new restrictions. And resultantly, the cases in France have doubled even as hospitals are flooded with patients.

Experts in Scotland’s University of Edinburgh cite the careless attitude of people highlighting that instead of learning from the rising cases in England, it’s surprising how individuals underestimated things.

And yet, no two countries grappling with the same menace- a new variant- can be compared. Since last February 2021, Poland’s rate of new cases has since quintupled (risen by 5 times). This has rightly enforced a closure of most public spaces.

But there is a glimmer of hope in that the scientists affirm that the vaccines will succeed in eventually defeating the variants. And at the same time, the restrictions put in place, should they are stringent, can beat down the new B.1.1.7. An example of this success was seen recently in countries around Europe such as England and Ireland and even Portugal.

Also Read: The Medics In Paris Fear That The Worst Is Yet To Come

But then there has to be a method to madness as one virologist at the University of Leeds (in Britain) suggested, “We need to make sure we unlock very slowly, and make sure vaccines increase and cover as many people as possible, including kids.”

Here’s hoping better days will prevail at last for a continent that has certainly seen better days in its past.