EU-DIGEST

As the occupants of a high-rise apartment block in western Shanghai sang from their windows in the third week of China's harshest COVID lockdown since the beginning of the pandemic, a small drone carrying a loudspeaker sought to quell their benign protest with a dystopian message: "Dear residents ... Please strictly comply with the municipal government's epidemic prevention regulations. Control your soul's desire for freedom and refrain from opening your windows to sing. This behavior carries a risk of transmission."

Like many countries in the West, the United States has done away with most rules surrounding public health. Some argue the measures were never restrictive enough to be begin with. America's nearly 1 million COVID-19 deaths are now the go-to gibe in Beijing whenever Washington mentions the condition of human rights in China, where the death toll remains at a little more than 4,600.

With nearly 90 percent of China's population fully vaccinated, many observers outside the country—and some within—are wondering why policymakers still refuse to abandon their "zero-COVID" approach, despite fears that the strategy is becoming untenable.

Read more at: Why China Sticks With Costly Lockdowns and 'Zero COVID'

While most American cities are opening up and lifting COVID-19 restrictions, one of the biggest cities in the world has been shut back down. Shanghai, China's most populous city with some 25 million inhabitants, was largely at a standstill on Friday as China battles its worst wave of coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic.

Read more at: China extends Shanghai coronavirus lockdown as frustration mounts over strict "zero-COVID" policy - CBS News

Sitting respectfully in our ‘pews’, we put our hands together… and clap. This is not a service but a comedy night. And Amsterdam’s newest ‘church’ is really a theatre for debate and cultural centre in disguise. Incensed by the illogical nature of the current Dutch coronavirus restrictions, Yoeri Albrecht, director of De Balie, last week changed the statutes of his organisation and registered it with the chamber of commerce as a faith-based movement: overnight, The Philosophical Society; the Community of Reason was born.

It is unlikely to be the last. His example, a group of Dutch mayors predicted wryly in an open letter to the government, is likely to mark the start of “an unprecedented religious revival in the coming weeks”.

The Netherlands has been in partial or full lockdown since November, primarily due to the pressure of patients with the Delta variant on the hospital system and one of Europe’s least efficient booster campaigns. But just over a week ago, the restrictions were loosened — albeit in a strikingly surreal fashion.

Read More at: Inside the surreal Dutch lockdown - UnHerd

The Netherlands was the first European country to go into lockdown as the highly contagious Omicron variant of the coronavirus spread to Europe. But it’s unlikely to be the first out.

A stalling vaccination booster campaign, combined with concerns that the rapid spread of Omicron could sideline essential workers in huge numbers, poses a dilemma for Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s new government: to reopen, or not to reopen?

“The amount of infections is taking on British proportions,” says epidemiologist Marino van Zelst, referring to the most recent number of infections being the highest recorded since the pandemic began.

Read more at: The Dutch went into Omicron lockdown fast; coming out could take longer – POLITICO

The health experts advising the Netherlands' government on COVID-19 strategy have recommended the country go into a "strict" lockdown, Dutch media reported on Friday, just days after a partial lockdown was extended through January.

Read more at: Dutch health experts advise a full lockdown to slow Omicron -media | Reuters