Skip to main content

How countries attempt to restart, this tool tracks COVID-19's path across Europe

How countries attempt to restart, this tool tracks COVID-19's path across Europe

blue and yellow stars flag on pole

Europe is starting down an uneven road to recovery.


Denmark is reopening society more quickly than anticipated, and Switzerland is eyeing the easing of emergency measures. At the same time, France has extended its lockdown period and the UK has said its restrictions will remain in place for the foreseeable future – as those countries continue to suffer dearly from the fallout of COVID-19.

The background for this disparity has been disagreement over matters including whether to jointly issue debt to fund Europe’s collective rehabilitation.

Europe’s patchy attempted return to normalcy might make retracing the coronavirus’s path across individual countries in the region instructive. The World Economic Forum has built a visual tool that offers a closer look at the spread of confirmed cases within several European nations.

For example, Italy, which has seen a north-south regional divide in terms of reported cases, has Europe’s highest cumulative death toll. Still, a limited number of shops in the country have been allowed to reopen.
white and red cross flag in front of snow covered mountains
In neighbouring Switzerland, the government announced measures including a ban on gatherings of more than five people in March but has been criticized for its targeted approach to testing. The number of confirmed cases in cantons including Italian-speaking Ticino and French-speaking Geneva far exceed those in some German-speaking cantons further north.

Spain has also seen a sharp disparity among regions in terms of confirmed cases. While the country’s death toll is second in Europe only to Italy, it has allowed some businesses to reopen, including those in construction and manufacturing.

Europe’s cautious moves towards re-establishing normalcy come after a disconcertingly rapid outbreak. The tracker tool also includes an illustration of the timing between first-reported cases in Europe and subsequent spikes in reported cases.

More detailed info is available here: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/covid-19-this-tool-tracks-coronavirus-path-in-europe/

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Italy: Firms shake lockdown using shortcut in coronavirus law

Italy: Firms shake lockdown using shortcut in coronavirus law The government last week extended non-essential business closures to May 3. But more than 100,000 mainly small- and medium-sized companies have applied to keep going or partially reopen. In principle, a key hurdle for companies to do business should be that they can prove they are part of a supply chain to businesses that are deemed “essential” in a government decree, such as food, energy or pharmaceutical companies. But the government, facing a backlog of applications, has clarified Italy’s lockdown laws to say no companies need to wait for government approval to go ahead. More than 105,000 firms have applied to be considered part of essential supply chains, the interior minister said on Wednesday, in a guideline on its website to clarify the lockdown rules. Of those, just over 2,000 have been turned down and told to suspend their business. More than 38,000 are being investigated and the rest are waiting to be...

Italy: Social distancing rules for restaurants

Italy: Social distancing rules for restaurants Thousands of restaurants, bars and clubs in Italy are protesting against post-lockdown social distancing measures that could cause the closure of 50% of all businesses in the hospitality sector. Check the source to know about new rules: https://www.dw.com/en/italys-restaurants-worry-about-social-distancing-rules/av-53277216

German government overreacted on COVID-19

German government overreacted on COVID-19 Christian Drosten, director of Berlin's Institute of Virology at the Charité Hospital, spoke to The Guardian on Sunday, days after the country began lifting some lockdown restrictions. Germany's lockdown started to lift on April 20, with the opening of smaller businesses like car dealerships, bike shops, and book stores. The country plans to start reopening schools on May 4. Drosten said he felt like the government was being pressured to reopen, and that he feared that a blasé attitude toward the relatively tame outbreak in Germany could lead to a new burst of infections.  The basic reproduction number, also known as R0, represents the average number of people a single patient is expected to infect and is a key figure to measuring countries' outbreak. You can read Business Insider's explainer to it here. More: https://www.businessinsider.com/germany-coronavirus-restrictions-so-effective-people-think-overreaction...