“Numerous people across the EU, young and old, would have been in a much worse situation had it not been for the record launch of Covid-19 vaccination programs.” Thus the European Commissioner for Health Stella Kyriakides, speaking in the European Parliament. “But now we are facing one pandemic driven mainly by the unvaccinated“, he added. Wednesday could be D-Day for the new recommendations of the EU Commission on the Green Pass. At the heart of the guideline update will be travel inside and outside the EU and the duration of the validity of the so-called ‘EU Digital Covid Certificate’, which is not currently provided for in the regulation that entered into force on July 1, 2020. By tomorrow morning, the Commission will announce when the new recommendations will be issued. “It will be this week”, a spokeswoman for the EU executive said during the daily briefing. But the day marked with the red circle is Wednesday. Up to now, no previews of the content of the new recommendations have been filtered from Palazzo Berlaymont, which in any case will not be binding on member countries. The hypothesis is that the EU will update the guidelines based more on the subject than on the region of origin. So on the status – vaccinated, cured or tested with a swab – of those who travel inside and outside the Union. Rumors in Brussels do not exclude that the recommendations place the Green Pass deadline at nine months for those who have made two doses. Deadline that the EU does not currently provide, having limited itself to establishing the annual duration of the regulation. However, in a few months it will almost certainly be extended.
“Many Member States have started to reintroduce some restrictive measures, often relying on the “Green pass” to allow safe access to public areas. We must avoid fragmentation, strong coordination is essential. For this reason we are preparing an update of the Council Recommendations on free movement in the EU “. Thus Commissioner Stella Kyriakides, in the EU Parliament.” Even if we have made our maximum efforts since the beginning of the pandemic, we cannot however impose coordination in an area where competence rests solely with the Member States, “he added.
GERMANY
“Almost all” Germans “at the end of winter they will be vaccinated, cured or dead“Health Minister Jens Spahn said at a press conference in Berlin, addressing a dramatic appeal to citizens to vaccinate.” This is very likely with the delta variant, “he added. Unvaccinated people are likely to contract the Covid, he explained.
Angela Merkel he said that the current anti-Covid measures in Germany “are not enough” to face the gravity of the pandemic. This is what the chancellor said speaking to the CDU board, according to a source quoted to the Dpa, who attended the meeting. “We have a situation that will surpass everything we have had so far,” he added. For the Chancellor, even the regulation that excludes the unvaccinated from public life will not be enough
In German Saxony, the health situation is so serious that there is a risk of having to resort to triage in the ward. This is what the president of the regional chamber of doctors, Erik Bodendieck, said, speaking to NDR info. If the situation does not change, it will be necessary to think about who should be treated and who should not, has explained. “The triage will have to be in place and we will be discussing this this week with my colleagues and my colleagues in the hospitals.”
AUSTRIA
Austria has been in lockdown since midnight. The country stops for the fourth time since the start of the pandemic. On December 12, social life will resume for the vaccinated and cured, while the unvaccinated will have to stay at home. As already happened last winter, residents will still be able to ski, because skiing is considered a motor activity, but obviously only if vaccinated and healed and with an Ffp2 mask on the ski lifts. Schools also remain open, but parents will be able to keep their children at home if they wish. Yesterday thousands of no vaxes took to the streets in various cities of the country to demonstrate against the government’s measures, but above all against the vaccination requirement that starts in February. At least the ‘waiters’ are now changing their minds: queues have formed in front of the hubs over the weekend.
FRANCE
In Paris, the number of Covid-19 patients admitted to intensive care is “relatively stable” and the possible consequences of the fifth wave on hospitals are not expected before “the end of December or January”: according to the head of the consortium responsible for hospitals Parisian audiences (AP-HP) Martin Hirsch, interviewed this morning by radio France Inter. “An excessively rapid increase in the number of hospitalized patients is not expected”, assured the manager, adding: “For intensive care it is relatively stable for 15 days. We think that the strong increase, if it were to occur, would rather occur in late December or January “.
KENYA
The Kenya introduces the vaccination pass: starting from 21 December, the government announced, the certificate will be necessary to enter bars, restaurants, offices, use public transport but also to access the country’s famous natural parks. A massive 10-day vaccination campaign will also be launched from November 26, Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe announced. The minister, in a statement, stressed that Kenya has recorded “a sharp decrease” in serious cases and deaths in the last 14 days, with a positivity rate that has fluctuated between 0.8 and 2.6%. Since the start of the pandemic, the country has officially registered 254,629 cases and 5,325 deaths.
NEW ZELAND
New Zealand it will put an end to the lockdown at the beginning of December anti Covid in force for three and a half months in the largest city in the country, Auckland, adopting a new strategy to combat the coronavirus: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern stated that, starting from 23:59 local time on 2 December , New Zealand will adopt a new response to Covid-19 aimed at containing the Delta variant, rather than attempting to eliminate it altogether. “The hard truth is Delta is here and it won’t go away,” he told reporters. “And while no country has been able to completely eliminate the Delta variant, New Zealand is in a better position than others to deal with it.” Until now, the Andern government had aimed at the complete elimination of the virus, a ‘zero-Covid’ policy, with strict containment measures, strict contact traceability and strict border controls despite the disease having killed only about forty people out of a population of five. millions. The new system is a sort of ‘traffic light’ to designate the level of containment: green means virtually no virus control, orange requires the use of a mask in certain places while red allows only vaccinated people to access activities in public. Auckland is currently isolated from the rest of New Zealand; the checkpoints will be removed on 15 December. Strict quarantine rules for international arrivals will remain in place, but the government has pledged to ease them early next year.