The " threat " of a second wave of Covid-19 infections is " real ", warned the German Minister of Health on Monday, in particular calling on his compatriots on vacation in the Balearic Islands to respect barrier gestures.
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Jens Spahn in particular expressed his concern at the situation on the Spanish island of Majorca, the main one of the Balearic archipelago, a holiday resort particularly popular with the Germans, to the point that they call it " the 17th region " of their country, which has 16 Länder. The Germans represent 27% of holidaymakers in the Balearic Islands, an archipelago where tourism weighs 35% of the GDP.
Worrying images
" The images we saw this weekend of the Germans' favorite island, Mallorca, worry me, " said Jens Spahn at a press conference organized with the German Institute for Epidemiological Watch, the Institute Robert Koch. " We must be very careful that the Balearic Islands do not become a second Ischgl ", an Austrian ski resort which this winter became an important European center of contamination with Covid-19, warned the minister.
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Several videos have shown dozens of German or British tourists, sometimes drunk, noisily partying in the streets of Mallorca, without wearing a mask or respecting a precautionary distance. " The threat of a second wave is real, " said Jens Spahn, who fears in particular a further increase in cases in Germany on the return of holiday tourists elsewhere in Europe.
Germany had 198,963 officially registered cases of infections with the new coronavirus on Monday (+159 in 24 hours) and 9,064 deaths (+1), according to the Robert Koch institute.
