A young man receives a dose of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine at the Central Middlesex Hospital in London. (Photo by Reuters)
Brussels, October 22 (RHC)-- Several European countries have criticized British handling of COVID-19, as there are growing signs of fresh wave of pandemic across Europe. “Why does Britain have more than 40,000 Covid cases a day, and why is it the European country with the most infections?” asked Spain’s ABC newspaper on Thursday, while France’s L’Express depicted London’s Covid management as “disastrous myopia.”
The wave of criticisms comes in the wake of British Health Secretary Sajid Javid’s warning that infected cases could hit 100,000 a day over the winter, as the country recorded more than 50,000 new infections on Thursday only.
While the infection rates surge in the UK, western European countries with equally vaccinated populations are also experiencing an increase in the number of cases, raising fears of a new wave there.
According to OurWorldinData figures, the UK recorded a seven-day average of 666.5 new cases per million people on Wednesday, in contrast to 40 in Spain, 44.5 in Italy, 80.2 in France, 146.7 in Germany, 223.3 in the Netherlands and 328.8 in Belgium.
The western European nations blame the forth wave on the UK over its wrong COVID policies such as relaxing all physical distancing restrictions, abandoning the face masks, and refusing to implement a Covid pass.
The British Medical Association (BMA) on Wednesday accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government of being “willfully negligent”, as ministers refuse to take any mitigation measures.
In a statement, the BMA said Johnson's government “has taken its foot off the brake, giving the impression that the pandemic is behind us and that life has returned to normal.”
“It is willfully negligent of the Westminster Government not to be taking any further action to reduce the spread of infection, such as mandatory mask wearing, physical distancing and ventilation requirements in high-risk settings, particularly indoor crowded spaces,” the statement added.
Rates of hospitalizations and deaths in the UK have failed to substantially decline since the summer, when the country lifted almost all of its remaining restriction. In Western Europe, the UK ranks the worst regarding the number of the infected cases.
