Summer is here, and with it, the gatherings conducive to Covid-19 contamination. In Europe, the threshold of 3 million cases has just been crossed on Thursday. In terms of death cases, the most affected European countries remain the United Kingdom, Italy and France.
In other less severely affected countries, increases in daily cases are also recorded. This is the case in our neighbors to the East, in Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland, where the curves of the epidemic, which had flattened in May, are experiencing further increases. In response, local governments are considering further restrictions.
Belgium wants to act quickly
Between July 12 and July 18, the country saw an 89% rise in new infections, with an average of 184 cases diagnosed per day, up from 98 the week before. On the side of hospitalizations, the figures are also increasing, from 130 beds occupied on July 12 to 191 on Wednesday. But this slight increase does not yet follow the more marked increase in contamination.
"The new transmissions mainly affect the youngest populations, from 20 to 40 years old, who have resumed social activity, apply less barrier gestures, are either asymptomatic or not very symptomatic", decrypts the Belgian epidemiologist Yves Coppieters at Le Parisien. "They are therefore unlikely to develop serious forms", adds the professor at the Free University of Brussels.
Even so, the vigilance is there. “Hospital indicators are starting to move,” says the specialist. “Above all, they must not increase at the same rate as the transmissions. This is what we experienced in the first wave, ”warns Yves Coppieters. An opinion shared by the Belgian authorities, who announced Thursday that the extension of the wearing of the compulsory mask to all places "with high traffic", such as markets, flea markets, shopping streets, hotels, restaurants and cafes , from Saturday.
In some cities, additional measures should already be applied at the end of the week, such as in Antwerp, where, from Saturday, meetings of more than ten people will be prohibited, against 15 currently. In addition, restaurants and bars in Antwerp will have to take the contact details of their customers to contact them quickly if necessary.
"Second wave" in Luxembourg
In Luxembourg, the vocabulary of the authorities is even stronger. "We are in the second wave," Minister of Health Paulette Lenert told RTL radio last Friday. After experiencing a marked lull in the epidemic in May and June, with less than ten new cases daily, infections began to rise again in early June in the country of more than 600,000 inhabitants. In July, the threshold of 100 new daily infections was crossed several times.
One of the causes of these contaminations, according to the minister, is the same as that mentioned in Belgium: private gatherings, which are increasing in this season. "There are people who are at parties, whether with colleagues or in the family circle," she told RTL, adding that nothing was "very specific". “We are more in a situation where we find little things everywhere. It doesn't make it easy, ”she said.
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Further explanation: the country's massive testing policy. “They have a much more important screening strategy than with us (in Belgium, Editor's note). Fatally, they find the asymptomatic, their number is increasing, ”adds Yves Coppieters.
As for hospitalizations, the curve has risen slightly since July 10, recently passing the milestone of 50 hospitalized patients last Monday. They were less than 20 at the end of June. “There are fewer severe cases, but the younger generation is more mobile and generally maintains more contact. The potential for infection is therefore higher, ”explains Dr Rudi Balling, professor at the University of Luxembourg, in Spiegel. A crisis council is also planned at the end of the week to study new restrictions in order to limit new contaminations.
Slight recovery in Switzerland
“Passenger traffic continues to increase in Switzerland and, since mid-June, the number of new infections has been on the rise,” analyzes the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (OFSP). In the federation, the number of new contaminations is no longer limited to a few dozen. It even passed, several times, beyond the threshold of one hundred new infections in July. As for hospitalizations, the increase remains low, going from around 90 patients at the end of June, to 120 on Thursday.
Unlike Belgium or Luxembourg, the Swiss authorities are not worried. "Switzerland has managed its epidemic much better, the population's support for barrier gestures has been much more automatic than in France or in southern Europe," said Yves Coppieters.
The Swiss health authorities do not rule out the application of new measures at the local level in the event of the appearance of major epidemic outbreaks. “If a canton notices an upsurge in cases, it will decide on the necessary and appropriate measures. It will then be advisable to favor those which have so far proved particularly effective in containing this virus, ”defends the FOPH.
Even if it does not always develop at the same pace, the virus, according to Yves Coppieters, reappears all over Europe, always in the same way. "It's always regional, in particular territories, provinces," he comments. “These outbreaks are well identified by the public authorities. Of course, they should be avoided. On the other hand, in the rest of the territory where the virus circulates at low noise, we are not more at risk than we are in Belgium or France, ”he said. There is therefore no need to worry too much between neighboring countries.