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Recent images from Europe are enticing: well-filled soccer stadiums, people on sandy beaches or at music events. Far away sometimes seem the difficult pandemic months. But it is not that simple.
Due to the far-reaching relaxation during the vacation season and the more contagious delta variant of the coronavirus, the number of infections is gradually rising again in some places. Although this was expected and accepted by many experts, some of the figures nevertheless cause disbelief. The Seychelles are at the top of the table with the highest current seven-day incidence worldwide, with a value of – due to the small size and low population of the island, this is not quite as significant.
More worrying is a look at number three: Cyprus. The vacation destination records an incidence of 437.5 per 100,000 inhabitants. The United Kingdom is the second European country to make it into the less than glorious top 10 list of hotspots. In the kingdom, where the delta variant is particularly rampant, the incidence is 271.4. In some regions of the country, such as northeast England, the figures are beyond the 400 mark.
Yet the country has yet to take the biggest opening steps. On July 19, the return to normality should become a reality. Masks will then no longer be compulsory on public transport and there will be hardly any restrictions on wearing them indoors.
Criticism of the approach of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government is strong, although the British government puts it into perspective: “The vaccines work, they are our protective barrier,” said Health Minister Sajid Javid. “We have to learn to live with the virus.”
Incidences are no longer the only relevant parameter, he explained; hospitalizations and deaths are more important. And there, thanks to vaccination progress, the numbers are not rising as rapidly as they were last winter.
In addition to Great Britain and Cyprus, the current problem children in Europe are once again Spain and Portugal, where the seven-day incidence rates are also moving back into the red zone. In Catalonia, for example, with the tourist metropolis of Barcelona, the value again exceeded the 300 mark.
- source: kurier.at/picture: pixabay.com
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