Portugal fears a fourth wave from the Delta variant

Lisbon: Portugal fears a fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic may take hold with the highly-contagious Delta variant now accounting for more than 60 percent of new cases in the capital.

Lisbon is among a dozen places which did not move into the final phase of easing the lockdown that much of the country has enjoyed. Travel between the capital region and the rest of Portugal was banned from last weekend to try to halt the spread of the infection.

First identified in India, the Delta variant has become the predominant strain in the greater Lisbon area, according to the national health institute INSA. "We are trying to delay its arrival in other regions of the country so that people can protect themselves more through vaccination," Health Minister Marta Temido said Monday.

More restrictions may be necessary, she added, at a time when many European countries are easing such curbs for summer. "We have to assess it as we go along and we are asking for everyone’s support, to avoid as much as possible measures which carry heavy social and economic consequences."

With the number of daily cases soaring 54 percent last week, Portugal found itself ahead of Britain with Europe’s fastest growth rate for infections, according to an AFP tally of data from national authorities.

Over seven days, the daily average of new infections has topped 1,100 cases, compared with 300 six weeks ago. "We have seen exponential growth since the month of May," Lisbon University epidemiology professor Manuel Castro Gomes told AFP.

"It begins with a very slow phase of growth during which everything seems under control, then it explodes," he said. With strict confinement measures imposed from mid-January to mid-March, "we have shown that it is possible to control the epidemic without keeping people at home," the professor said.

But the appearance of the Delta variant came as a "nasty surprise" with the gradual easing of safety measures well under way . "The big question is will the vaccinations still be delivered quickly enough to counter the spread of the infection," said Gomes.

Nearly half of the 10 million population has received one dose of a vaccine and just over a quarter are fully vaccinated. However the number of Covid cases in hospital has more than doubled in a month to 450 patients.

President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa noted on Monday that current hospitalisations were only a third of the red line figure representing an overload on the health system. The nation is "very far" from the situation which required a health emergency to be declared in the six months leading to May, he said.

The conservative head of state, who has no executive power, had declared there would be no "going back" to a lockdown. But socialist Prime Minister Antonio Costa took a cautious position, replying that "no one can guarantee that we will not return to a lockdown".

Meanwhile, violent extremists are abusing the coronavirus pandemic to polarise societies, spread hate propaganda and exacerbate mistrust in public institutions, Europol warned in a report on Tuesday.

Since Covid gripped the world in early 2020, there has been "a notable increase in intolerance of political opponents, while the number of individuals conducting verbal or physical violence is also increasing," Europe’s policing agency said.

The rise of right-wing extremism is of special concern, the Hague-based Europol said, pointing to at least one failed right-wing extremist attack in Belgium linked to opposition to the government’s Covid-19 measures.

Elsewhere a Czech national was arrested for threatening to ram a vehicle into a crowd if the government did not reopen restaurants and bars, the 109-page Terrorism Situation and Trend Report said.

The report showed that "in the year of the Covid pandemic, the risk of online radicalisation has increased. This is particularly true for right-wing terrorism," said Ylva Johansson, Europe’s Home Affairs Commissioner.

The worst attack happened in Hanau near Frankfurt in Germany in February last year when a gunman with suspected far-right beliefs shot dead nine people at a shisha bar and a cafe. Europol added there were 57 completed, foiled and failed terror attacks on the continent, killing 21 people in total.

In a related development, Moscow authorities announced on Tuesday that residents will soon have to present an anti-Covid pass to enter restaurants, as the city battles a surge in infections driven by the Delta variant.

The new restriction is the latest in a series of measures after new daily coronavirus cases tripled in just two weeks, with Mayor Sergei Sobyanin attributing the rise to the highly infectious Delta variant first identified in India.

In a post on his blog, Sobyanin wrote that from June 28 restaurant-goers will have to present a QR code showing a negative coronavirus test valid for three days -- or proof they have been vaccinated or were sick with coronavirus within the previous six months.

"We must find solutions that will allow us to maximally protect people and reduce the burden on the healthcare system," he said.

However those solutions, he added, could not disrupt the "normal functioning" of the service industry and "other sectors of the economy". "Similar rules for visiting restaurants and cafes have been in effect for several months in many European and Asian cities. And the time has come for Moscow to learn from their experience if we want to avoid a new, highly undesirable lockdown," Sobyanin said.

Unlike many European countries, Russia did not reimpose a lockdown when it was hit with a second wave of infections last fall as it sought to support a struggling economy. The country instead pinned its hopes of curtailing the pandemic on its four homegrown vaccines -- Sputnik V, EpiVacCorona, CoviVac and the one-dose Sputnik Light.

But authorities have faced a populace highly sceptical of inoculation against Covid-19, with one recent independent survey saying that some 60 percent of Russians do not plan to get a shot.

Even though free jabs have been available since December, just 15.5 million people out of a population of some 146 million have been fully vaccinated, according to the Gogov website which tallies Covid figures from the regions and the media.

Moscow and a host of regions earlier this month announced mandatory vaccination measures for service sector employees. Russia is among the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, with the sixth-highest number of cases in the world, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Meantime, France’s fashion houses are tip-toeing back on to the catwalk this week after more than a year of crisis that has upended the industry and left many wondering if the traditional calendar will ever return.

With pandemic restrictions easing, many in the Paris fashion world hope men’s fashion week, starting on Tuesday, marks the start of a return to normalcy. Still, only six of 72 brands that make up the official Paris fashion calendar will present live shows this week, though they include two big names in the form of Dior and Hermes.

It follows a similarly tentative return in Milan, where only three of 47 -- Dolce and Gabbana, Etro, and Armani -- offered live events for this week’s Spring/Summer 2022 show. New York won’t be back in physical form until September, while the newly gender-neutral London Fashion Week has also remained fully digital up to now.

In Paris, many big names are staying within the confines of computer screens, including Louis Vuitton, Dries Van Noten, Loewe and Tom Browne. Pascal Morand, president of France’s Federation of Haute Couture and Fashion, told AFP there was "a very strong appetite to return to the physical."

But he was not ashamed to deploy the word "phygital" for the current state of affairs. "It won’t be one thing or the other. It will be both, and it’s a sign of innovation," he insisted. Nonetheless, many big designers seem to think that the days of the rigid spring/summer calendar are over in the four main fashion capitals. Berluti, for example, has said it will run its own timetable from now on, and presented its men’s collection in Shanghai in April, reflecting the increasing importance of Asian buyers.