British health experts say the number of Covid-19 cases could increase during the Euro, similar to the peak of the epidemic in 2021.
Professor Mark Woolhouse, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Edinburgh and a former UK government adviser on Covid-19, said surveillance of new cases was not as tight as it should be, making it difficult to track the rise and fall of the epidemic or assess the severity of the variant. However, the number of cases began to rise in the summer, as it did in 2021 when the European football championship Euro began.
Many fans gather in pubs, bars or outdoor eateries to watch football, spreading the virus faster. The hospitalisation rate for Covid-19 is now 3.31 per 100,000 people from June 9 to June 16, up from 2.67 the week before. The rate is higher among older people, with 34.7 per 100,000 people aged 85 and over.
The number of positive cases also increased by 29% in the last week of June. Most of the tests were done in hospitals and health care facilities. This means that many patients are still treating themselves at home and not going to the hospital.
Covid-19 is rising across all metrics, including hospital admissions, according to Dr Jamie Lopez Bernal, an immunisation epidemiologist at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). Experts are concerned that existing vaccines are not effective enough to protect against new variants that are more contagious than previous versions.
The dominant variants in the UK are KP.2 and KP.3, which together accounted for 40% of cases in April. Both variants evolved from the previously dominant JN.1 strain.
“The wave of infections continues to drive reassortment, while the population’s immunity has somewhat waned,” Professor Woolhouse added. He said the level of illness, virus circulation, hospitalisations and deaths in the UK would be volatile.
Football fans gather at outdoor events during Euro 2024. Photo: UEFA
Germany has previously warned that Covid-19 could return due to the Euro. The host country has set out rules of conduct to prevent the spread of the disease. Members of the 23 teams must have a negative virus certificate before leaving for Germany to participate in the tournament.
Experts in this country believe that the virus will be a “ghost” for humanity for three years. From 2020 to 2022, Germany is one of the strictest countries in terms of preventing infectious diseases. According to data from German health authorities, Covid-19 cases tend to increase in the summer, and dangerous variants also appear more and more.
Euro 2024 will take place over a month from mid-June, when foreign teams and tourists will be in high demand. Health experts fear this is an ideal environment for the virus to mutate and spread.
Covid-19 first appeared in the world in late 2019, originating from Wuhan (China) and then quickly spread globally and became an unprecedented pandemic in history. The whole world was infected, the virus continuously mutated, countries applied lockdowns – social isolation, the health system fell into crisis due to overload and lack of drugs and treatment equipment, millions of people died. The “nightmare” pandemic lasted more than three years, then gradually subsided thanks to research efforts to successfully produce vaccines and drugs. Currently, Covid-19 has become a common disease although the virus continues to mutate with stronger infectious properties and can evade immunity, but its virulence is much less than the original strain of 2020-2021.