In Brussels the 60-foot Christmas tree was placed in the center of the city’s stunning Grand Place on Thursday but a decision on whether the Belgian capital’s festive market can go ahead will depend on the development of the COVID-19 virus surge.
BRUSSELS – This was supposed to be the Christmas in Europe where family and friends could once again embrace holiday festivities and one another.
Starting Monday, Slovakia is banning people who haven’t been vaccinated from all nonessential stores and shopping malls.
“It is really, absolutely, time to take action,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
“All of Germany is one big outbreak,” Lothar Wieler, head of Germany’s disease control agency, told reporters Friday.
Greece, too, is targeting the unvaccinated.
The world has had a history of mandatory vaccines in many nations for diseases such as smallpox and polio.
“No single individual freedom is absolute,” countered Professor Paul De Grauwe of the London School of Economics.
“We are glad to see they are making the effort to put up the tree, decorate it.