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小 發表於 2020-12-16 12:59 只看該作者
Coronavirus: European nations tighten restrictions ahead of Christmas
Coronavirus: European nations tighten restrictions ahead of Christmas
A number of European countries have tightened coronavirus restrictions ahead of Christmas following a surge of infections in recent weeks.
The Netherlands has entered a five-week lockdown, with non-essential shops, theatres and gyms all closing.
Germany will enter a hard lockdown from Wednesday after the number of infections there hit record levels.
Meanwhile, Europe's medicines regulator is set to meet sooner than planned to consider approving a vaccine.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) will now meet on 21 December to discuss whether the German-developed Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine
should be rolled out around the bloc. That vaccine has already been approved by regulators in the UK and the US.
The body was initially scheduled to meet on 29 December, but it brought forward that date following pressure from member states
and a rise in cases.
In recent weeks, governments around the continent have been wrestling with difficult questions about whether to ease restrictions
in time for the holiday period.
But the recent wave of infections in some nations has prompted governments to halt plans to loosen the rules.
What measures are countries taking?
The five-week lockdown in the Netherlands is the strictest set of measures announced in the country since the pandemic began.
Non-essential shops, cinemas, hairdressers and gyms have all closed and schools will follow suit on Wednesday. People have also
been told to refrain from booking non-essential travel abroad until mid-March.
But restrictions will be eased slightly for three days over Christmas, when Dutch households are allowed three instead of
two guests.
And what about the vaccine?
The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, welcomed the decision to bring forward the EMA meeting on whether
to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
"Every day counts," she wrote on Twitter. "[It is] likely that the first Europeans will be vaccinated before the end of 2020."
German Health Minister Jens Spahn echoed Ms von der Leyen's view.
"The goal is to get approval before Christmas," he told a press conference in Berlin. "We want to start vaccinating in Germany before
the end of the year."
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