ALMERE, Netherlands – A bright yellow helicopter climbed into a blue sky on Friday with a COVID-19 patient from the Netherlands to a German intensive care unit, the first foreign air bridge of its kind since the global pandemic first threatened to overwhelm Dutch hospitals. in the spring.
The curse of the helicopter rotors as it took off from a car park at the Flevohospital hospital in Almere, 30 kilometers (20 miles) east of Amsterdam, was a stark reminder of how the coronavirus once returned to Europe and strained systems. of countries’ physical conditioning. .
In other cities on the continent, lack of noise was expected to underscore the scale of the virus’s resurgence, as major cities, from Rome to Paris, reduce nightlife as a component of the drastic measures nations are implementing to curb spread. .
In addition to the 3 evening curfews declared this week through the governors of the Italian regions, adding Rome, Milan and Naples, the capital has to further shorten the hours of “nightlife” for other young people who tend to spend time in fashion plazas, party for hours, without mask, while having cocktails and spilling beers
The populist mayor of Rome’s Five Star Movement, Virginia Raggi, signed an ordinance banning several popular gathering places to drink at night starting at nine o’clock at night. On November 13, the crackdown covers the historic stalls of the evening assembly, adding Campo de ‘Fiori, a vast expanse in central Rome that also serves as an outdoor food market during the day, and Piazza Trilussa, a square near the Tiber that is regularly filled at night with noisy drinkers.
The curfew imposed in Paris and other French cities last week last week last extended to 38 other regions starting Friday night, and on Saturday night a four-and-a-half-hour curfew will come into force in the Greek capital, Athens, and the largest city at the time of the country, Thessaloniki, as well as several other spaces known to have the highest infection rates.
In Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez publicly has over the country to unite to defeat the new coronavirus.
“We want to intensify the fight,” he told the country in a televised confrontation that this week is the first European country to exceed one million officially registered instances of COVID-19. Sanchez admitted, however, that the actual figure may be fair to be more than 3 million, due to gaps in evidence and other reasons.
Worldwide, the virus has inflamed more than 41 million people and killed more than 1. 1 million, according to a johns Hopkins University account. Actual numbers are much higher due to gaps in testing and case reporting.
Restrictions on european daily life continued until the close of the 31-seat parliament on the Arctic island of Greenland after a member of the assembly’s finance committee contacted a user who had tested positive. Thursday for his one-day fall session, but canceled.
Dutch air shipment to a hospital in the German city of Munster came amid rising rates of infection in the Netherlands, where the seven-day moving average of new instances has been highest in the past two weeks, from 24,58 new instances consistent with another 100,000 people on October 7 to 47. 74 new instances for 100,000 on October 21. On Thursday, there were 463 patients with COVID-19 in Dutch intensive care units.
Flevohospital spokesman Peter Pels said moving patients across a foreign border to a last hotel after other hospitals around Almere said their extensive care teams might not accept them. On Friday, the hospital transferred two patients to Germany.
“We prefer not to move patients because it is very radical, also for the family,” he said. “But to keep the quality and protection of care on an intelligent level, unfortunately it is mandatory to move patients. “
The numbers also increased in neighboring Germany, and the country’s disease center said Friday that 11,242 new cases had been reported in the subsequent 24 hours, slightly less than the record of 11,278 set the following day. it has more than 60. 3 instances consistent with 100,000 inhabitants, up from 56. 2 the following day.
At the same time, the country has lately more than 8,100 loose beds for extensive care, of which about 21,500 are occupied, according to the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, there is also a reserve of about 12,700 beds that can be activate in seven days if necessary.
During the first phase of the pandemic, the last week of March and the first two weeks of April, Germany gained a total of 232 intensive care patients from Italy, France and the Netherlands.
Germany is also in talks to welcome other people from the Czech Republic.
In the most affected country, the fitness minister was forced to resign on Friday after a mediaman reported that he had damaged strict government restrictions and visited a place to eat in Prague for a meeting, a few hours after pronouncing the hardening of viral restrictions.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called on his country to adhere to the new restrictions that came into force here on Saturday, adding the mask costume outside, closing the number one schools and urging the over-70s to stay home.
The virus also continues to wreak economic havoc. In Spain, where tourism generated 12% of gross domestic product and held 2. 6 million jobs before the pandemic, hotel overnight stays fell by 78% in September to the same month last year, the national statistics firm said.
Spain is the most popular holiday destination in the world, after France, however, the hotel stay in the first nine months of 2020 has decreased by 71% until 2019, the firm reported.
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Mike Corder reported from The Hague and contributed the associated press from all over Europe.
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