Following the evolution of the large number of regulations and restrictions aimed at the resurgence of coronavirus in Europe has become a disconcerting task.
Governments take a fragmented approach, targeting local hotspots to avoid the national blockades that devastated economies before this year, however, the mosaic of conversion measures has not stopped the virus, suggesting that possibly more regulations would be inevitable.
Across the region, restrictions on when and where citizens can buy, eat and drink, meet with friends and family, or even walk at night, replace covid infections from week to week. regions, such as Germany and Spain, things can get even more confusing.
In the state of Hesse, home of Frankfurt’s German monetary centre, visitors must present a negative check in order to rent a hotel room, while in Bavaria and Berlin such a requirement does not exist. The northern city of Rouen will have to be indoors before nine o’clock at night, while its compatriots living ninety kilometres away in Le Havre can stay out all night.
Here’s a look at Europe’s largest economies:
Chancellor Angela Merkel has tried to coordinate Germany’s reaction with the country’s 16 ministers, with more or less success.
Last week’s consultations lasted 8 hours and produced a dense list of recommendations covering everything from distance and hygiene regulations to face masks, public and personal meetings and domestic travel.
The wording followed left ample room for manoeuvre for regional administrations, and several states defected from safe measures. Bavaria, meanwhile, has some of the strictest regulations for viral hotspots, with personal meetings limited to five or two families and a ban on drinking in public squares from 22:00 hours. .
Officials also face demanding legal situations for their virus-related decrees: an attempt through the Berlin city administration to force restaurants and bars to close between 11 p. m. and 6 a. m. annulled last week through a local court.
After using the blanket, a national technique to kill the virus in the spring, the French government has chosen to fight the latest wave locally. Night curfews have been established in nine major cities, adding Paris and its suburbs, with others confined to their homes starting at nine o’clock at night. until 6 a. m. unless they’re working.
Customers greet a bartender as they leave a bar curfew in Paris on October 17.
Photograph: Nathan Laine / Bloomberg
In designated cities, meetings of more than six people in public spaces are prohibited and the government strongly recommends that they be implemented in private. While the bars are closed, restaurants and cinemas will remain open until curfew begins. Schools and universities opened after the summer holidays.
“The purpose is to continue to have an economic life,” with other people going to paint and schoolchildren, President Emmanuel Macron said last week the announcement of curfews and other measures.
In the UK, the government has blocking authority only over England and not on the other 3 parties that make up the Union (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), which has a separate legislature with a variable diversity of powers.
England has been operating a three-tier alert formula lately designed to cause appropriate restrictions. Schools and universities would remain open even at the alert level, as would maximum companies.
England and Scotland keep bars and restaurants open, with other regulations on final hours and whether consumers can consume food and beverages on site.
“For one of our national channels, it becomes a major headache to track compliance and compliance desires,” Said Kate Nicholls, executive leader of UKHospitality, an industry group, in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “And the consequences are very serious. “. serious if they are wrong. “
The Prime Minister of Wales announced a stricter two-week stop on Monday. All non-essential outlets must close, as must maximum schools. Northern Ireland has closed schools, bars and restaurants.
In Italy, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte also hopes that further measures will be taken to control the virus at the epicentre of the continent’s original pandemic.
Regional and local government is free to impose its own restrictions, more severe than those decreed in Rome. The central government suggested local government close squares and streets at nine o’clock at night to prevent crowds from meeting, but some mayors have accused the direction of throwing the ball backwards.
A policeman talks to a tourist about his face at the Fontana della Barcaccia fountain in Rome on 8 October.
Photo: Alessia Pierdomenico / Bloomberg
Protective masks are mandatory both indoors and outdoors, in remote areas. Betting department stores and game rooms are scheduled to close at nine o’clock at night, while personal parties are allowed but not recommended, with advice to restrict the number of visitors from other families to six. .
In Spain, fitness policy is basically controlled through the 17 autonomous communities, which means that management sets its own course.
Catalonia, for example, has to close all restaurants and bars since last weekend. In the southern region of Andalusia, the government has been criticized for ordering the temporary closure of the University of Granada, although the bars remain open.
Madrid, the epicenter of a new wave of contagion, has been the scene of a political confrontation between the president of the Socialist government, Pedro Sánchez, and the city’s center leaders. to claim restrictions on mobility in the capital and some surrounding locations without authorization from the regional government.
Although it did not take the action, the local government declared its own restrictions on 3 of the so-called “health districts. “Although all regulations are still in place, none of the governments actively enforce them.
– With that of Zoe Schneeweiss, Daniel Schaefer, Alix Steel and Caroline Alexander