– During the peak season, the number of corona cases in Europe is rising again, even in the classic holiday destinations. Where it is worth exercising caution – and maybe even reaching for the mask again.
Summer holidays have been on in Bavaria since Monday. “I’m packing my suitcase and taking a mask with me,” is what many people might be saying right now – because depending on the destination, holidaymakers are well advised to have a face mask in their luggage. Otherwise, there is a risk of a holiday “flirt” of the unpleasant kind: because even though Corona seems to have largely disappeared from the collective consciousness, the virus is still mutating. The variants KP.1, KP.2 and KP.3 are currently on the rise – better known as FliRt variants, where the letters F, L, R and T stand for different mutations.
At the end of June, for example, the island of Mallorca was already struggling with a significant increase in corona infections. In many countries, the situation is similar at the start of the Bavarian holidays: the number of new infections is rising, Greece, for example, reported around 4,500 new infections on July 15 – the second most in the world at that time. The seven-day incidence rate of 43.6 was around ten times higher than currently in Germany (as of August 2). Greece holidaymakers.
More and more infections on the Iberian Peninsula
Portugal is also reporting a high number of new infections – in mid-July there were around 2,300. According to epidemiologist Manuel Carmo Gomes, the daily average of new infections tripled between the end of May and the beginning of July – from 130 to 390 cases. At the beginning of July, around 12 people per day died as a result of an infection – two months previously, one person died every two days. However, the infection is mild in most people.
In Spain, it is not only the holiday island of Mallorca that is recording an increasing number of corona cases, the infection rate is also intensifying on the mainland: As the portal “The Olive Press” reports, in the Mediterranean metropolis of Valencia, for example, the number of reported cases rose sixfold compared to the previous year – while 37 cases per week were recorded in June 2023, this figure rose to 221 cases per 100,000 inhabitants at the end of June.
Italy: Sudden increase in infection numbers – and a clear recommendation
Italy is also struggling with rising case numbers: The report for the week of July 11 to 17 shows that the number of Covid infections rose from just over 5,000 cases to just under 9,000 – an increase of more than 60 percent within seven days.
At “Stol.it”, Prof. Dr. Christian Wiedermann, research coordinator of the South Tyrolean Institute for General Medicine and Public Health in Bolzano, recommends wearing a mask in closed and poorly ventilated rooms – as well as in large crowds.
