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COVID-19

How is each European country emerging from coronavirus lockdown?

Tentatively, parts of Europe are emerging from lockdown, with France and Belgium joining the list of countries easing measures on Monday, amid fears of a second coronavirus wave.

Published: 10 May 2020 16:50 CEST
How is each European country emerging from coronavirus lockdown?
European Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders, wearing a protective face mask to lessen the spread of novel coronavirus, COVID-19. Photo: JOHN THYS / AFP

Here is an overview:

France

Hair salons, clothes shops, florists and bookshops will open again Monday. Bars, restaurants, theatres and cinemas remain closed.

Primary schools will take small numbers of pupils, depending on space. Masks will be obligatory on public transport.

Everyone will be able to move outside without having to present a form on demand but people will only be able to go 100 kilometres (60 miles) from their place of residence.

The easing has brought mixed reactions. “I've been scared to death” about the reopening, said one bookshop manager from Lyon.

“It's a big responsibility to have to protect my staff and my customers.”

Belgium

Most businesses will open Monday, with social distancing. Masks are recommended.

Cafes, restaurants and bars remain closed. In central Brussels there will be speed limits on cars and priority will be given to cyclists and pedestrians.

Schools remain closed until May 18.

The Netherlands

Primary schools will partially reopen Monday. Driving schools, hair salons, physiotherapists and libraries also return, with social distancing measures.

Switzerland

Primary and middle schools will reopen Monday, with classes often reduced in size.

Restaurants, museums and bookshops will also open, with conditions. Meetings of more than five people remain banned.

Spain

Half of Spain's some 47 million people will be able to meet with family or friends in gatherings of up to 10 as of Monday.

Outdoor spaces at bars and restaurants can reopen with limited capacity. Hardest-hit Madrid and Barcelona are excluded from the easing, though football clubs FC Barcelona resumed training on Friday and Real Madrid will follow Monday.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has called on Spaniards to show “the greatest precaution and prudence” because “the virus has not gone away, it is still there”.

Only movements within provinces are authorised and cinemas and theatres remain closed. Schools will not start up again until September.

Britain

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will address the nation on Sunday evening to set out a “roadmap” for relaxing social distancing rules.

“We have to be realistic that there isn't going to be any dramatic overnight change,” Environment Secretary George Eustice said.

Italy 

While schools remain closed until September, factories, building sites and offices reopened on May 4. Social distancing rules are in place in parks.

Wearing masks is mandatory on public transport. All retail businesses will reopen on May 18, as will museums, cultural sites, churches and libraries.

Bars and restaurants will reopen from June 1, along with hair and beauty salons. The first phase of lifting lockdown has also sparked fresh concerns.

In Milan, photographs published in newspapers of people sitting along canals enjoying aperitifs in the sunshine, many not wearing masks or respecting social distancing rules, prompted the city's Mayor Giuseppe Sala to slam the behaviour as “shameful”.

Virologist Massimo Galli also warned the city was a virus time “bomb” at risk of erupting with residents now free to move around.

Germany 

Eating at the restaurant is now possible in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where the country's first cafes and restaurants reopened on Saturday.

Under Germany's federal system, each of the 16 states makes its own decisions on how to emerge from lockdown and cafes and restaurants will reopen in a number of other states in the coming days and weeks. Most shops are already open and children are slowly returning to classrooms.

Bundesliga football matches are also set to resume. Heeding signs of a second wave, German authorities have agreed to reimpose restrictions locally if an area has more than 50 new infections per 100,000 residents over a week.

Austria

Hairdressers, tennis courts and golf courses reopened in the first weekend in May.

Travel restrictions have been lifted and gatherings of up to 10 people are allowed, with social distancing. Masks are compulsory in public transport and shops.

Final-year school students returned to class on May 4 ahead of a gradual return for others. 

Poland

Hotels can reopen on Monday but foreign tourists must quarantine for two weeks on arrival.

 

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STRIKES

Pharmacists in France to strike at the end of May

Unions representing French pharmacists have called for walkouts at the end of May in protest over drug shortages, wages and the sale of medication on the internet.

Published: 10 May 2024 09:41 CEST
Pharmacists in France to strike at the end of May

The primary union, the union for community pharmacists (Union des syndicats de pharmaciens d’officine, or USPO) has called for on-call pharmacists to walk out during the Pentecost long-weekend (May 18th to 20th), and for all pharmacies across France to close on Thursday, May 30th.

On-call pharmacists (pharmacie de garde) are those working on Sundays and bank holidays (like Pentecost), as most other pharmacies close on these dates.

While it is still not clear how many pharmacists will walk out, the call for strikes is nationwide and it may be best to plan to pick up any important medicine ahead of time.

Why the strike?

Drug shortages are a large part of the problem because they reportedly force pharmacists to spend more of their working hours doing drug research to be able to offer alternatives to patients. 

Pierre-Olivier Variot, the head of the union for community pharmacists, told Franceinfo that this has led to an extra 12 hours of research time for the average pharmacy.

“These are 12 hours during which we cannot take care of patients. We’re also dealing with tired patients who are frustrated we do not have their treatment,” he said.

Variot also explained that wages have not kept up with inflation, and as a result some pharmacies have had to close. 

Unions are also calling for the French government to better regulate the sale of medication on the internet, in order to ensure quality and safety standards.

Why the shortage of medicines?

The issue has been longstanding, and the situation was made worse during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The French Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) reported that, in 2023, it had 4,925 medicines either out of stock or at risk of being out of stock, an increase of 30.9 percent in medicine shortages compared to 2022.

You can find the list of medications in short supply here.

A spokesperson from ANSM told Le Point in February that there are several things causing the problem, with many of them taking place on a global level.

“There are challenges with the manufacture of raw materials and finished products, as well as qualify defects in the drugs, insufficient production capacity, and division within the manufacturing stages,” the ANSM said.

On top of that, many factories dealing with raw materials are located outside of Europe.

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