What are Covid-19 restrictions and infection rates like in other European countries?
An empty Champs Elysées as the 7pm curfew starts in Paris, France. Picture: AP Photo/Rafael Yaghobzadeh
Summer holidays and international travel may be well and truly off the cards this year.
As the EU struggles with vaccine supply issues, several European countries look set to tighten their Covid-19 lockdowns amid a surge in infection rates.
Here's where some other EU countries stand as regards restrictions and infection rates:
A four-week partial lockdown was reintroduced in Paris and 15 other regions of France this past Saturday.
More than 35,000 new cases were then reported in France on Sunday, and the numbers of people in intensive care reached its highest level this year.
The latest restrictions will see inter-regional travel effectively banned, and a nighttime curfew put in place from 7pm to 6am.
Failure to adhere to restrictions will also see people hit with a €135 fine.
Primary schools and colleges (attended by students aged 11 to 15) will remain open during the latest lockdown, however.
High schools (attended by students aged 16-18) will revert to a half in-school, half at home schedule. Non-essential French businesses will also be shut for the next four weeks.
More than 4.2m cases of Covid-19 have been reported in France since the pandemic began, and 92,000 people have died.
Germany too looks set to extend a national lockdown.
With case numbers on the rise countrywide, several German states are reported to have called for restrictions to be extended.
On Saturday, vice-president of Germany’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases Lars Schaade warned of the possibility of "many severe cases and deaths, and hospitals that are overwhelmed".
The RKI said cases in the country were rising at a "very clearly exponential rate".
Germany’s Covid incidence rate once again surpassed 100 cases per 100,000 population over the weekend.
German chancellor Angela Merkel had previously said the country would need to apply "an emergency brake" if this infection rate was reached.
Germany had eased some lockdown measures in recent weeks, with some non-essential stores reopening and students returning to classrooms.
Germany has recorded more than 2.7m cases of Covid-19 to date, with nearly 75,000 deaths recorded.
Last week, prime minister Mario Draghi placed two-thirds of Italy back under lockdown – including the major cities of Rome, Milan and Naples.
Daily case numbers in Italy have been regularly above 20,000 over the last week, and pressure on hospitals has increased significantly.
Italy's professor of public health Nino Cartabelotta said last week that the national trend of the contagion curve was pointing toward “a third wave”.
A countrywide 10pm to 5am curfew remains in effect in Italy, and all non-essential travel between regions is prohibited.
Several areas, including Rome, have been classified as ‘red zones’.
People living in these areas are not permitted to leave their locality, unless for essential reasons.
Current restrictions will remain in place until Easter, at which point, the entire country will become a 'red zone' – a move the government hopes will prevent movement around the country and infection over the holiday weekend.
After the Easter weekend, the government has hinted restrictions may be relaxed once more, though it has not specified to what level.
Italy was the first European country to be hit hard by the virus.
Nearly 3.4m cases have been recorded there, and more than 140,000 people have died.
Spain, like Italy, remains under countrywide curfew, though some restrictions differ slightly from region to region.
The country’s infection rate had been declining steadily since the new year, but new infections have risen slightly in the last two weeks.
However, Spanish health minister Carolina Darias said last Wednesday that it was “too early to tell” if a major change in trend was happening in Spain in the same way as in France or Italy.
Her government had previously set a target of getting the national incidence rate below 50 per 100,000 population. At present, Spain’s rate is 127.91.
Ms Darias said that, while the government was constantly reviewing the situation, there would likely be no further restrictions introduced over the coming weeks.
Spain has seen more than 3.2m Covid-19 cases and more than 72,900 deaths.
Mainland Portugal is under a state of lockdown until the end of this month.
Schools are shut, all non-essential services have been suspended, and members of the public have been urged to stay home.
However, cases in Portugal have decreased significantly in the last two months. Daily cases are now around the 600-mark – down from a high of 15,000 or so in late January.
The Portuguese government began relaxing its lockdown measures from March 11.
So far, Portugal has seen about 817,000 cases of Covid-19 and more than 16,700 deaths.
Greece has been experiencing a renewed surge of Covid-19 infections, despite lockdown-related measures being in force since early November.
About 500 people are now being admitted to hospital each day across the country with coronavirus, health authorities say, 200 of those in the wider Athens region.
As a result, the Greek government has ordered private-sector doctors to help public hospitals struggling with surging patient numbers.
On Sunday, Greece announced 1,514 new Covid-19 cases and 41 new daily deaths, taking the total of confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic to 237,125.
A three-week lockdown in Poland began last Saturday, with all non-essential shopping, and all sports and cultural gatherings prohibited.
Polish health officials said the measures were necessary to curb the spread of the UK Covid-19 variant which they said was now “rampant” in the country, and responsible for 60% of all new recorded infections.
A daily average of 21,703 new infections has been reported in Poland in the last week.
Last Friday, Germany classified Poland as a "high-risk" travel area, meaning anyone crossing into Germany from Poland is required to present a negative Covid-19 test.
“If extending restrictions to the entire territory of Poland does not put an end to the epidemic, or at least slow down the third wave, then the next steps will be a typical lockdown, where we will close everything completely,” Polish health minister Adam Niedzielski said last week.
Poland has seen 1,956,974 coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, and over 48,000 deaths have been recorded there.
Belgium has seen an average of 3,438 people testing for Covid-19 last week – an almost 40% increase of the incidence recorded one week previously.
On Sunday, 9,065 new cases were reported – the highest one-day total since November of last year.
On Sunday, Belgium’s health minister, Frank Vandenbroucke, said additional restrictions were now needed, despite the country having been in a second national lockdown since November.
“We have set ourselves a very important ambition by completely opening schools after Easter and catering from May 1," he said.
“With this increase in contamination, there is a risk of not achieving these objectives. It is not impossible. To ensure our goals, additional measures are needed.”
Like Belgium, the Netherlands has seen a major upturn in virus trends over the last two weeks – with more than 6,000 new cases now being recorded each day.
The number of Covid-19 patients in Dutch hospitals increased by almost 10% in the past week, prompting public health authorities there to warn of an imminent surge.
The Dutch government had hoped to be in a position to relax some Covid-19 restrictions this week, but this is now highly unlikely.
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