Western Europe Still Fighting The Pandemic

By Keshav Vinod

Countries in Western Europe are seeing a surge in Covid-19 cases as Austria becomes the first country in the region to reimpose a full Covid-19 lockdown. Germany, the largest economy in Europe, may also soon follow suit, sending chills down the European financial markets.

Germany is now seeing it’s fourth wave of infections and has plunged the country into economic turmoil. According to Health Minister Jens Saphn, vaccination alone will not be enough to cut down on the number of infections.

Austria has taken a more aggressive step in that not only have they imposed a full lockdown, but they have required the entire population be vaccinated by Feb. 1. This was met with some backlash by the far-right Freedom Party, the third largest party in Austria’s parliament.

Various European governments have also taken action and have started to once again impose restrictions on activities. The Netherlands is now in a partial lockdown and unvaccinated regions of Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are seeing movement restrictions. Whether or not the entire region will go into another lockdown remains to be seen and will highly depend on mask mandates and vaccination rates.