White Home says no Covid lockdowns as European nations implement restrictions

The Biden administration has no plans to curb future Covid-19 surges utilizing a nationwide lockdown, White Home coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients stated at a briefing Monday.

Zients’ feedback come as Austria enters its fourth nationwide lockdown and the Netherlands institute a partial lockdown amid a Covid surge rampaging throughout Europe in current weeks. As an alternative of locking down the U.S., Zients stated the federal authorities would depend on vaccines and therapeutic therapies to maintain the nation operating within the occasion of one other devastating Covid wave.

“We are able to curb the unfold of the virus with out having to in any approach shut down our financial system,” Zients stated. “We’ve got 82% of individuals now with one shot and increasingly individuals getting vaccinated every week.”

Zients referred to as for the continued use of vaccines, booster pictures and monoclonal antibodies to stop the U.S. from “going backwards in any approach, form or type.” Greater than 60 million eligible People nonetheless have not gotten vaccinated in opposition to Covid, and well being officers are asking those that qualify for boosters to register for his or her additional doses with the vacations approaching.

Covid instances within the U.S. plateaued between 70,000 and 75,000 per day for nearly three weeks beginning in late October, however they’ve since reached a seven-day common of almost 92,400 per day as of Sunday, a rise of 16% from the week prior, in keeping with a CNBC evaluation of information from Johns Hopkins College. However abroad, Europe tallied greater than 2.1 million new instances throughout the week ended Nov. 14, roughly 64% of all instances globally over that span, the World Well being Group reported in its most up-to-date weekly epidemiological replace.

Austria recorded a seven-day common of almost 14,000 each day instances as of Sunday, up 28% from every week in the past, in keeping with knowledge compiled by Hopkins. And the Netherlands is seeing a median of about 21,000 infections per day for the week ending Sunday, 56% increased than the week prior.

Austria’s lockdown started Monday and can final for at most 20 days, with a nationwide vaccine mandate taking impact Feb. 1, Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg stated Friday. The Netherlands launched a partial lockdown on Saturday as nicely, forcing choose companies to close early and stopping the general public from attending sporting occasions for 3 weeks, Reuters reported.

Each Austria and the Netherlands have seen protests erupt in response to the return to lockdowns and extra stringent Covid mitigation measures. Comparable demonstrations arose throughout Belgium, Croatia and Italy in current days as nicely.

Outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel has additionally referred to as for more durable measures in Europe’s largest financial system as Covid spikes there.

CNBC’s Chloe Taylor, Holly Ellyatt and Nate Rattner contributed to this reporting.