“A rapidly changing situation” in the face of a “worrying new variant”.
During his press conference this Thursday, the director of WHO Europe, Hans Kluge, was not reassuring about the evolution of the health situation in Europe.
While several countries are gradually lifting their health restrictions and benefiting from the Euro football, contaminations show an increase of 10%.
An increase that resurfaces the specter of a “new wave” carried by the particularly contagious Delta variant.
And this "because of the increase in mixing, travel, gatherings and the relaxation of social restrictions," said Hans Kluge.
But behind the numbers lie very different situations.
If the appearance of the Delta variant is causing contamination to flare up in certain European countries, in most of them the trend is still downward.
We take stock.
England, Russia, Spain and Portugal on the front line
At the head of the countries most affected by the explosion of contaminations, England and Russia.
Together, they make the European average jump.
Across the Channel, the arrival of a new wave is no longer in doubt.
Between June 15 and 30, the number of new infections rose from 7,594 positive cases to 25,670 positive cases.
An epidemic outbreak which is explained by the spread of the Delta variant, which has become the majority in the country.
In Russia, which is preparing to host the quarter-final of the Euro, this Friday, the situation is just as worrying.
In two weeks, the number of contaminations rose from 14,002 to 20,633 positive cases per day.
This Thursday, the government once again announced a sad record, that of the number of deaths from Covid-19, with a peak at 672 deaths.
For its part, faced with the explosion of cases, Portugal has already announced the reinstatement of the curfew in 45 municipalities, including the capital Lisbon.
The Delta variant accounts for 51% of new infections and even more than 70% in the Lisbon region.
With a number of new cases recorded at 2,449 on Thursday, the situation still seems far from being under control.
Same observation, in the Spanish neighbor where contaminations almost tripled between June 15 and June 30.
With a number of new infections per day from 9,227 to June 30, Spain even ranks third just behind England and Russia.
Cyprus, Finland, Belgium, Luxembourg: the epidemic resumes
In Cyprus, if the number of contaminations is still low, the upward trend is clear.
Between June 15 and June 30, the number of new cases identified increased by more than 6, from 64 to 429 positive cases.
The lights are also turning red in Finland, where new confirmed cases per million inhabitants have risen from 13.6 to 29.5, an increase of 386%!
In Luxembourg too, the number of people infected per day remains moderate with 92 people infected on June 30.
But the epidemic is clearly starting again in this small country where the evolution of cases has multiplied by 4 between mid-June and the end of June.
In our Belgian neighbors, the spread is much more reasonable but slightly up, going from 508 to 581 new cases in two weeks, i.e. an increase of 14%.
France, Germany and Switzerland still on the decline
On the other hand, the lights are, for the moment, still green in France and in most European countries.
Even if in France, the drop in the incidence rate is no longer so obvious and the drop in contamination is slowing down sharply.
As of June 30, our country still showed a drop in new cases of 57%.
For its part, Germany, whose Minister of Health warns about the spread of the Delta variant which could represent "70 to 80%" of infections by the end of the month, still shows a drop in the number of contaminations per day. (- 30 %).
In Switzerland, the number of new infections per day was almost halved, from 243 to 129 positive cases.