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AS THE PANDEMIC persists, Ireland is not the only country still facing tight restrictions.
Italy, Norway and parts of Poland are among European countries that have implemented stricter rules in recent days in an effort to control the spread of the virus.
Following a decision by the Italian government late last week, 80% of school children, from nursery to high schools, were locked out of the classroom from yesterday.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s new government applied “red zone” designation on more regions, including – for the first time since the colour-tiered system was created last autumn – on Lazio, which includes Rome.
Italy has faced mounting numbers of ICU beds occupied by Covid-19 patients, steadily rising daily caseloads and infection transmission predominantly driven by the variant first discovered in the UK.
In Italy’s red-zone regions, restaurants and cafes can only do takeaway or delivery, non-essential shops are closed and residents must stick close to home, except for work, health or shopping for necessities.
Similarly, Poland has tightened restrictions in a western province that borders Germany and a region that includes the capital, Warsaw.
Two other provinces were already under restrictions.
Poland has seen a sharp spike in the number of new infections and of new Covid-19 hospital patients.
Under the heightened measures, hotels and shopping centres have to remain closed, as do theatres, cinemas, fitness clubs and sports facilities.
School children aged six to nine will have a combination of in-class and remote teaching.
France has entered a “form of third wave” of the coronavirus, Prime Minister Jean Castex says, as the government considered whether to impose a new lockdown, notably in the capital region where hospitals are close to overflowing.
As is the situation elsewhere in Europe, virus variants are suspected of fuelling increases in serious cases in France.
President Emmanuel Macron’s government has been trying to stave off another punishing nationwide lockdown in 2021 by opting for a 6pm to 6am nationwide curfew instead.
A decision on whether the Paris region and its 12 million inhabitants will be locked down on weekends is expected in a few days.
The Norwegian capital Oslo announced tougher measures yesterday to stem the spread of coronavirus, closing secondary schools and restricting the number of visitors to homes as case numbers rise.
A record number of Covid-19 cases, 1,960, were detected last week in Oslo, which has a population of 700,000 people.
“We have never before seen such a high level of recorded cases,” the capital’s mayor Raymond Johansen told a press briefing.
“If the spread of the virus is too high for too long the system collapses and you lose control,” he added.
Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro have also announced tighter measures amid a surge in cases.
Portugal has emerged from a two-month lockdown to move into a gradual reopening over the next seven weeks, with primary and nursery schools, hair salons and book shops returning.
Overall, European countries have recorded over 900,900 deaths and 42,689,900 cases as of this morning, according to an AFP tally.
Additional reporting by AFP
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Ireland’s restrictions remain the tightest
@Lorrimore: no they don’t , please look at Italy .
@bmul: that doesn’t fit into the “woe is Ireland” narrative
@Lorrimore: nope
@Lorrimore: we don’t even have a curfew for goodness sake.
@bmul: only sections of Italy..not the whole country
@Lorrimore: a simple bit of reading wouldn’t go amiss
@bmul: yes they are… Italy is one country. This place in almost continued lockdown by a useless government. Most of Europe is not dealing with this prolonged nonsense.
@ger barry ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: All of Italy is in an Orange or Red Zone, 7 Zones are Orange and 12 Zones are Red:
https://www.thelocal.it/20210315/in-maps-how-italys-coronavirus-zones-change-from-monday/
Orange:
You’re prohibited to move around from 10pm till 5am. The government recommends to limit movements within your city as much as possible.
Travelling in between regions and cities is prohibited, unless it’s for work, study or health reasons. For towns with less than 5000 inhabitants it is possible to travel outside the town without restrictions within a distance of 30km from the town.
Travelling to second homes in different regions is allowed, as long as those regions are white, yellow or orange. You must show proof of ownership and can only go with your family.
Restaurants and bars are to stay closed. Takeaway is allowed till 10pm and food delivery is allowed nonstop without any restrictions.
Shops, hair salons and beauty centers are to stay open.
Shopping malls are to stay closed on weekends and public holidays except for grocery stores, alimentari, pharmacies, newsstands, tabacchis and other shops that sell essential goods that are inside the shopping mall.
Red:
Travelling in between regions and cities is prohibited. Moving around your own city is not allowed, unless it’s for work, study or health reasons.
You may work out outdoors but only by yourself and in the vicinity of your home.
Restaurants and bars and cafes are to stay closed. Takeaway is allowed till 10pm and food delivery is allowed nonstop without any restrictions.
Shops are to stay closed, except for grocery stores, alimentari, pharmacies, newsstands, tabacchis and other shops that sell essential goods.
Beauty salons, hairdressers and barber shops remain closed
Visiting a private home is not allowed anymore.
Travelling to a second home is not allowed, even if the house is located in a white, yellow or orange region.
Schools to remain closed: all schools, including kindergartens and elementary schools, are to remain closed in the red zones.
@bmul: Italy is only closing for two weeks. Its actually not all of Italy either. I have family living there they said its due to religious services. There are always large attendances for Easter celebrations this is to try and curb crowds.
@Fergal Doyle: Yes and have been since the very start of Covid.
@bmul: It’s regionalised in Italy, so yes we still have the strictest and longest lockdown in Europe. I think the current UK lockdown is quite similar to ours, difference is that they have a plan in place to exit lockdown, unlike our lot who just make it up as they go along.
IRELAND is the most restricted country in Europe for Covid-19 measures, according to studies from the University of Oxford.
The Blavatnik School Stringency Index ranked the Irish Government the strictest.
Executive Director Toby Phillips told the Irish Sun that government policies in Ireland and the UK were the most restrictive – which makes Ireland’s the toughest in the EU.
He said: “Our stringency index is based on eight areas including school closures, border restrictions, stay at home orders, and caps on gatherings.
“Broadly, Ireland is definitely by our measures has one of the most stringent policy measures in Europe.”
https://www.thesun.ie/news/6607704/ireland-lockdown-restrictions-compared-europe/
(Apologies for link to that rag)
@mar: any link to page three?
@DJ François: they don’t even read the article. Straight to the two sentence, ill-informed commentary.
@Lorrimore: I’m sorry although on paper and as per announcements we should be the tightest. However, I am an essential worker and when the lockdown was announced just after Christmas the roads were empty. But now look at them, no matter what time you are on the roads there is huge volumes of traffic and they are not travelling for essential reasons.
@mar: However, as of March 12th, Ireland was ranked 3rd in Europe behind Greece and Portugal, and were were equal with Italy.
1. Eritrea
2. Greece
3. Portugal
4. Mauritius
5. Venezuela
6. Ireland, Italy
Italy is now likely a head of us, putting us in 4th place in Europe. That’s because Italy greatly increased the the stringency if their lockdown on Monday 15th March.
Data from here:
Click “available in timeseries form”
https://www.bsg.ox.ac.uk/research/research-projects/covid-19-government-response-tracker
@David Jordan: you can’t possibly expect the covid deniers to read all that text can you?!
@DJ François: Ireland have the longest lockdown in Europe.. it’s a sh!t show run by corrupt officials
@mar: your article is three weeks old and given that this post is about countries introducing new restrictions is out of date. We’re now lying something like fourth in terms of restrictions.
@Asid: if everyone actually adhered to the restrictions the transmission rate would be lower.
@bmul: Yes they do. This story is spun to paint an illusion that other countries are similar – when it’s not the case. We’re compared to the one other basket case in Europe for restrictions – and even then it only applies to half the country for Italy. And it doesn’t mention that things like hairdressers and other non essential services are still running – in the locked down half! We’re well out of touch at this point.
@Vinnie Monaghan: you’ve got it in a nutshell officially we are the hardest hit but unofficial who cares, it’s all down to how the govt acts and dont act, there are protests of some sort going on around the country nearly every day and very few arrested for covid infringements, over the past week I have traveled to belfast and dublin twice ( I had ligament reasons for my trips ) and was never checked so where is the incentive to obey the rules….
@EillieEs: in the 1st lockdown everyone did ( well the vast majority did ) but when the govt refused to lockdown the airports and sea ports so that 80000 odd Italians could come in to the country for cancelled rugby match without hinder and god knows how many went to Cheltenham (2 examples) would hate to guess how many came in to fruit pick or from Brazil to man the meat factorys, people soon got fed up obeying ….
None of the countries mentioned in the article have in place restrictions as tight as Ireland.
@Jason Shortt: So Ireland have a 6pm to 6am curfew too? That’s news to me Ted.
@Frank Carty: italy’s lockdowns have not been as strict or as long as Ireland’s. The current restrictions do not even affect some parts of the country. Italy has been one of the hardest hit countries in the world during the pandemic. They had large loss of life, far excess of average years. In Ireland, we had relatively low loss of life, and overall deaths have been around average. I don’t agree that lockdowns are the answer to this problem, but at least you could argue that Italy’s response has been proportional.
@Jason Shortt: Italy’s first lockdown was a few days shy of two months, in which we weren’t allowed leave the house without a signed form for the police stating where we were going and why. We weren’t even allowed to go for a walk or a run.
@Caroline Doorley: fair enough Caroline. I concede that that is more strect than Ireland. However, very large numbers of people were dieing at that time. Currently, in Ireland, we have been locked down since December, even though 2020 was a fairly average year for all cause mortality in Ireland, as was the winter period.
@Jason Shortt: all deaths from 2020 haven’t even been registered yet so unsure how you come by those figures.
@NotMyIreland: Given that we are 2 and a half months into 2021, the vast majority of 2020 deaths have in fact been registered. The CSO published the official Q3 2020 figures yesterday (they show a 3.4% decrease in Q3 desths compared with 2019) and you can find Q4 figures on the Euromomo website (you will see that Q4 2020 deaths are considerably lower than 2019). There would have to be several hundred as yet unregistered 2020 deaths in order to make 2020 anythjng other than an average year for all cause mortality.
@Caroline Doorley: Italy’s lockdown?? no it wasn’t stop lying
@Jason Shortt: Dealing with the actual known figures for Q1 to Q3 for 2020 there has been an increase of 3.71% in all cause mortality or an additional 872 deaths between Jan and Sept.
@Jason Shortt: its just struck me that the fact that from 2020 Q1-Q3 deaths are only 872 (or 3%) up on 2019 shows that our restrictions have done a very good job in controlling the impact of the pandemic on this country. Especially when you compare to countries like Italy that did experience huge excess mortality.
This however sadly does not take into account the fact that our pandemic related deaths are actually loaded to Q1 2021, and that this is as a direct result of easing of some measures. But yet that fact also points to the effectiveness of the restrictions and showed that the longer tougher measures, if continued throughout the winter months and Christmas could have left us in an even better position. Basically the fact there has not been a huge spike in all case mortality shows the restrictions worked.
The argument you seem to be putting forward is that because deaths were not greatly in excess of 2019, the restrictions should have been looser and shorter because we could afford to allow more deaths? Maybe I have picked that up wrong?
An island with a population of under 5 million. No excuses for this length of lockdowns 12 months in. Comparing to other countries is irrelevant
@IrelandForChange: you mean ah partitioned Ireland, the South of Ireland has under 5 million, are you forgetting the North of Ireland, yes comparing a divide island, ruled by two different governments but with a shared border and free movement, yes its irrelevant.
Ireland has never had a proper lockdown unlike Spain where I’m lucky to live. But I’m going to an Irish pub tomorrow with live music because rules are very strictly enforced.
@Ian James Burgess: That’s not fair☹
@Ian James Burgess: de p u t a madre, unas cañas
@Ian James Burgess: Enjoy it, have one for me.
@Alan Byrne: I will, we had 110 days when we couldn’t leave our homes
@Ian James Burgess: This time of the year I’m normally in the wonderful city of Valencia for the Las Fallas festival. Oh how I have missed it for the past 2 years.
Thanks Journal for the Pan-European article on how bad everyone else has it …. It’s as effective as that light-hearted story at the end of every news presentation on mainstream TV. Don’t pretend we’re not the Lockdown odd-balls of Europe, when we clearly are….
At the moment I’m watching the story of us on itv.This really highlights what covid can do to you and the bravery of the hospital staff who are amazing. Lets all do our bit for hospital staff and ourselves and our parents and grand parents and the children the supermarket workers and all essential workers. We can fightcovid if we do the right thing.
@Joed: We have all been fighting covid. We have all been doing the right thing since 13th March 2020. We have all done our bit its way past time for that to be acknowledged. I have 3 family members working in health care. One a nurse said hospital is very quiet has been for a while. They did have a tough time last year but as he and his friends say they are fed up being used as the excuse to continue lockdown. They say what is needed is a much improved health service something they are continuously promised every year but never get.
@Franny Ando: I’m currently in hospital and the nurses say that during the first lockdown they were quiet but since June have been completely swamped. I struggled to get a bed and was nearly transferred to a hospital halfway across the country, until luckily a bed unexpectedly became free. So your family members story is not the same as my current experience. Although if they work on the covid pathway side I’d imagine that has slowed down a bit now.
@NotMyIreland: ..because of staff shortages, we have never come close to running out of beds, so you have been spun a yarn to cover up the ineptitude of the health service
@Asid: yeah I’m well aware its mostly a staffing issue, coupled with the fact that sections of hospitals have been designated for covid care only, but that still doesnt change the fact that between bed numbers and staff numbers there is a capacity issue. And if capacity is full for either reason well then that equates to busy doctor’s and nurses. So to say the hospitals are quiet is just misinformed, again outside of the covid pathways which have clearly gotten less busy. And no the health service you experience in the ground is no way inept, quite the opposite. That title may lie with the most senior levels of the HSE but certainly not the people or services you experience when actually attending a hospital.
I’ve lost count of the waves.
@Wayne Scales: easily done during a storm
Still no quarantine hotels here even though government said they would be brought in very rapidly.
@David Connell: . . . . Yawn
Compare the following to Ireland and tell me thst the restrictions are as tight as they are here: https://seenews.com/news/serbia-imposes-five-day-lockdown-to-limit-covid-19-spread-734635
I have lost count of the waves a year on and we are still in lockdown but for me I am ok with that as I know people that lost their lives due to covid experienced loved ones who have battled with covid so I personally will keep doing what am asked to do .Eventually I think Ireland will open up I have hope and for now please just do what we are asked to do .
I’m in Spain and it’s been tough , curfew not being able to move outside or town at weekends or our county? During the weeks.
Hardly any flights into our nearest airport,,,everyone wears masks all the time.
Now bars and restaurants are open until six ,so I will be able to go for a pint tomorrow.
@Maria Clery-Breen: a pint? well youre not in spain then are you.
@Maria Clery-Breen: Spain hasn’t been nearly as tough as Ireland for lockdowns.. please come back to reality
@D.B: any time I’m in spain I always ask for a pint….
The famed and revered EU which is has cult like status in this country has failed the people. Their vaccination plan has been a disaster and after their attemp to trigger article 16 has shown what it has become. The UK, US and China will be long out of this mess while Europe will stagnate economically. The greatest fear is that the UK will prosper having left the EU and this will in turn make other nations question the EU project
Wonder hoe long people are going to be able to put up with covid restrictions. These vaccines might work but what if they don’t? Do we keep locking down? It’s going get to a point where we just have to get on with things. I have two parents who are in the vulnerable category and they want to just get on with things now.
Lockdown Mehole
The hyperbolic tone of this article is symptomatic of a media (and the journal in particular) that seem intent on trying to play down restrictions, serious issues with mismanagement of vaccine sourcing and rollout by the government. Lots of hot language pretending to be contextualising where we are at versus other countries. Our government infantilises the citizens. Our lazy media feed ignorance with a complete lack of depth and conspicuous gaps in information. I’m not saying there’s some plan at foot here. I just think they aren’t fit for purpose.
@Patrick McConville: Agree completely. Was also eagerly anticipating news on all the new restrictions Sweden are imposing on its people nowadays. Was so surprised I had to check the data. Seems Sweden are not tracking much worse than any other country mentioned in the article. Due to the irritating way Sweden reports its numbers, we’ll have to wait and see, but there’s so far not much difference there between high/low restriction countries (confirmed deaths dropping like a stone in Sweden, in fact, good to see)
https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=350..420&pickerSort=asc&pickerMetric=location&Metric=Confirmed+cases&Interval=7-day+rolling+average&Relative+to+Population=true&Align+outbreaks=false&country=ITA~SWE~NOR~POL~FRA~SRB~BIH~MNE
@Nollaig Ó Ceallaigh: Sweden don’t use restrictions. Just recommendations. Everyone doing as they please. But the numbers are not going down, not the death toll either. Our reports are just hiding whats going on. Many teens and younger getting sick- and more serious.
@Anette Tourette: Data doesn’t really support what you’re saying exactly, though. Cases are indeed remaining stubborn, deaths on the other hand have dropped like a stone. As I said though, due to the way Sweden reports it’s numbers I guess we’ll just have to wait a bit and see.
Many were all too happy to point out how Sweden are now locking down and bringing in restrictions. Reality though is that you’re right: very little restrictions, mostly recommendations. And look how they fare with our own:
https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=346..latest&pickerSort=asc&pickerMetric=location&Metric=Confirmed+cases&Interval=7-day+rolling+average&Relative+to+Population=true&Align+outbreaks=false&country=IRL~SWE
Cases in Sweden going up since end of January, where ours are going down, however deaths going the opposite way. Make of it what you will, but 1 year on and Sweden are still nowhere near the catastrophic levels predicted, and still nowhere near our level of restrictions.
Not sure how our reports are hiding anything though. Not everything is reported in the briefings, sure, but it’s all available publicly if you’re interested via Covid Data Hub. Nor is everyone doing what they please: I’m following restrictions, though at this point I’m not entirely sure why.
Ivermectin.. iMask Protocol.. covid is completely treatable.. stop with the fear porn journal..
@Asid: From a statement from Merck the Company who owns Ivermectin on 4/2/21:
“No scientific basis for a potential therapeutic effect against COVID-19 from pre-clinical studies;
No meaningful evidence for clinical activity or clinical efficacy in patients with COVID-19 disease, and;
A concerning lack of safety data in the majority of studies.”
So not even the pharmaceutical company that owns the drug makes a claim for its use and actually quite the opposite.
Also the FDA March 8th released a statement asking people not to use it as treatment for Covid19.
Ivermectin appears to be the hydroxychloroquine of 2021 for the people so desperate to believe they are being lied to rather than face the truth. Except not even the company that stands to make money from these claims are backing it them up this time. Says it all really.
My friend in Slovakia can only travel 1km from home. Masks are compulsory once you leave your home I.e outside. I believe kids have to wear masks too and there is a curfew.
How many countries have construction sector closed? Hmm
have your say