Europe battles fourth wave of Covid-19 with lockdowns and restrictions

Mass Covid-19 testing in Vienna, Austria, who will begin to mandate vaccinations from February 2022. Photo / 123rf

A fourth wave of Covid-19 is sweeping through Europe, forcing several countries to lockdown in an attempt to quell the spread.

Austria, whose population is 66 per cent fully vaccinated, has gone into a full lockdown similar to New Zealand's 'level 4'.

The country has shut schools, imposed a curfew and allow people to leave home only to purchase essential items or exercise.

Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said it would last 20 days at most and from 1 February 2022, all citizens would be legally required to get vaccinated.

Despite attempts to avoid mandated vaccination, Schallenberg said it was necessary after too many people had been convinced to not get the jab. The chancellor blamed "too many political forces, flimsy vaccination opponents and fake news", for the resistance.

When asked if Germany would follow Austria and lockdown, the country's Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn said they "can't rule anything out". Currently, the country has a vaccination rate of about 67 per cent.

Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel described the recent wave of Covid-19 as "dramatic" and "full force".

As a result, she announced last week a new series of restrictions for unvaccinated citizens who lived in areas where hospitals were reaching capacity due to Covid-19.

Under the restrictions, unvaccinated people will be excluded from public spaces and events such as restaurants, music shows and sports games.

In the Netherlands, 23,000 new cases were announced on Thursday; nearly double the peak of 13,000 cases recorded in December 2020. As a result, the country has actioned a three-week lockdown that closed bars, restaurants and essential stores after 8 pm.

Meanwhile in Slovakia, a "lockdown for the unvaccinated", as described by Prime Minister Eduard Heger, started today.

Currently, the country has the EU's third-lowest vaccination rate, with 45 per cent fully vaccinated.

Overall, the EU's average infection rate has quadrupled over the last few weeks according to statistics from Our World in Data. In October, the average was 110 daily new cases per million people. As of this Thursday, it was 446.

Hans Kluge, the Europe regional director of the World Health Organization, blamed the events on "the easing of preventive measures", inadequate vaccination coverage and the transmissible Delta variant.

University of Bristol virologist Professor David Matthews told Independent Europe's situation illustrated the "need for us to keep talking to adults who, for whatever reason, have decided to not have the vaccine".

"Vaccination is easily the most effective way out of the pandemic and absolutely the best way to avoid any more lockdowns," Matthews said.

Fortunately, a recent study found that most Europeans support the use of vaccine passport mandates in order to achieve high vaccination rates.

The annual YouGov- Cambridge Globalism Project, which surveyed people across 10 European countries, found that the majority agreed with using vaccine passes for large events as well as restaurants and gyms.