A second Easter under the COVID-19 pandemic has arrived. Instead of celebrating it at home, Shousha, a young Finnish shop owner who runs a dessert shop with a friend in downtown Helsinki, decided to stay open for business, awaiting customers.
Battling against a new wave of COVID-19 infections fueled by more transmissible variants, European countries are facing the unprecedented challenge of balancing disease control and public life with economic reopening.
Easter arrived early this year compared to last, yet the pandemic situation in Europe has hardly improved. Several countries cannot afford to drop their guard.
A total of 27 countries in the region were in partial or full nationwide lockdown, with 21 of them imposing nighttime curfews, the World Health Organization's European Region Office said in a press release on Wednesday.