This blog posting represents the views of the author, David Fosberry. Those opinions may change over time. They do not constitute an expert legal or financial opinion.

If you have comments on this blog posting, please email me .

The Opinion Blog is organised by threads, so each post is identified by a thread number ("Major" index) and a post number ("Minor" index). If you want to view the index of blogs, click here to download it as an Excel spreadsheet.

Click here to see the whole Opinion Blog.

To view, save, share or refer to a particular blog post, use the link in that post (below/right, where it says "Show only this post").

Europe Battens Down Against Covid-19.

Posted on 17th November 2021

Show only this post
Show all posts in this thread (Covid-19).
.

The information in this post is taken from the Schengen Visa Info New web-site, this report on The BBC, this report on The BBC, this report on The Financial Times, this report on Orillia Matters and other sources.

In summary, cases are rising all across Europe. Hospital beds are either full or filling up fast, and governments have realised that they need to take firm action quickly. Even the UK, which was feeling rather cocky due to falling case numbers a week ago, has experience an uptick.

Travel rules have been tightened all across Europe, with more countries being added to the red-lists of many nations, and stricter entry requirements for vaccination or tests.

Austria has imposed a lockdown for its two million unvaccinated citizens.

The Netherlands has started a nationwide lockdown, with non-essential shops being closed, and earlier closing times for all shops.

In Germany, where Covid regulations are set by each state (Lände) government, many are considering bringing in lockdowns for the unvaccinated, and FFP2 masks are again required to enter shops or use public transport (for a while, ordinary medical masks were sufficient). Many public venues, bars and restaurants will only allow people who are vaccinated or recently recovered (a recent negative test is no longer enough): the so-called 2G (geimpft or geheilt) rule instead of the 3G (geimpft, geheilt or getestet) rule.

Many nations are now encouraging their citizens to get a booster jab.

Things are likely to get much worse before they get better.