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Street scene in Paris: mask requirement in the entire city area
Photo: Michel Euler / dpa
The interview has only just begun when Isabel Díaz Ayuso, President of the Madrid Region, utters words on Wednesday morning that a few minutes later all of Spain will read.
"People are just getting infected, children are just getting infected, everyone is just getting infected, and school has not yet started."
Ayuso promises that the classrooms are safe.
But there the words are already in the world, and it's no longer about school.
The sentences are seen as an admission, because the virus has long been rampant in Madrid again uncontrolled.
Since this week at the latest, Spaniards have been wondering whether they will relive the scenes that shocked the country so much in March.
The number of infected people has been increasing for weeks
Nervousness is also growing in France and Italy.
The Mediterranean states were hit the earliest and hardest by the virus - and fought it with the strictest measures.
Now fear is returning to the south of Europe.
The number of infected people has been rising for weeks and in some cases have already reached the peak values from spring.
It is true that the greatest danger this time does not come from Italy, but primarily from Spain.
But there is great concern that massive Covid-19 outbreaks, such as those in Madrid or Paris, will also repeat themselves with some delay in Italy - and may soon threaten across Europe.
Why are the numbers rising again in the south?
What is different this time than in spring?
And how are the governments in Madrid, Paris and Rome reacting to the new situation?
Crisis managers across Europe are currently looking attentively towards the Mediterranean in order to prepare for the upcoming Corona autumn.
All of Paris wears blue, surgical masks blue
Perhaps there are two truths.
One truth is that the greater Paris area has been a risk area again since August 24, because the infection rate here is over 50 per thousand inhabitants.
For a week now, all of Paris has been wearing blue, surgical masks blue, because now it is compulsory to wear masks in the entire city area, including outside, and not only in public transport and shops as before.
Many French have the impression that summer was only a short break from the threatening infection process and that things are now starting again.
Several cities in the south have also opted for a mask requirement.
In Marseille there is even a ban on alcohol from 11 p.m., restaurants and bars then have to close so that nobody forgets the distance rules when drunk.
The port city as well as the entire and very large Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region were classified as a risk area like Paris.
But you can also look a little more soberly at the increased number of infections, which can be explained on the one hand by the many people returning from vacation and on the other by the much higher number of tests carried out.
There are currently around 900,000 each week, far more than in March or April, when the tests were mainly reserved for the sick.
In mid-March, only 5000 people were tested per day in France.
That belongs to the other truth.
Just like the fact that, despite all the warnings, some vacation spots were able to develop into super-spreader zones, because especially younger vacationers under 40 years of age wanted to celebrate again despite the pandemic.
In Saint Tropez, for example, the discos were closed, but at some point the tables were pushed together in the restaurants and danced to the music of specially hired DJs.
That was not without consequences.
The percentage of those who tested positive has tripled in the past few weeks and is now 4.3 percent;
in the 24 hours from Thursday to Friday of this week this was 7,157 cases.
However, 80 percent of them had no or hardly any symptoms.
21 infected people died in these 24 hours.
For comparison: on April 15, France recorded 1,500 deaths in one day.
Nowhere is the virus spreading as quickly as in Spain
Nowhere in Europe is the virus currently spreading as quickly as in Spain.
There are now more than 200 corona cases for every 100,000 inhabitants.
The curve is similar to that in March, but now many young people are affected and the infections are now better recognized.
A large proportion of those affected show no symptoms.
People have become more careless
Pedro Sánchez, Prime Minister of Spain
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez blames family celebrations and parties for the increase.
The reasons are clear, he says: "the mobility, the nightlife. The people have become more careless."
However, it was his government that was determined to open the country before the holiday season so as not to alienate tourists.
Regions like Madrid had not hired enough people to track infection chains.
In Germany, for example, there is now a travel warning again for the whole of Spain, the season was bad anyway, and now it's over.
Economically, this is a catastrophe for Spain.
The hasty opening alone cannot explain the many cases.
For this reason, cultural factors are increasingly being discussed in Spain.
The Spanish cities are particularly densely built up in the center, the families often live in small apartments.
In the evenings you meet friends in the bar, sit close together, often for hours.
All of this makes Spain so liveable, now proximity is becoming a problem.
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Corona test in Madrid: why are the numbers rising again?
Photo: Paul White / dpa
As in spring, Madrid is becoming the center of the pandemic.
Around a third of the corona cases were last recorded there, most recently there were 467 infections per 100,000 inhabitants.
Even the many tests cannot explain these numbers; 13 to 14 percent of the smears are now positive.
The virus is particularly rampant in the working-class neighborhoods in the southeast of the city.
In Madrid, the regional government is now taking tougher measures.
Meetings with friends and relatives should be limited to ten people.
If the virus continues to spread uncontrollably in Madrid, experts fear a similar effect as in spring.
The virus could spread in a star shape from the capital to more remote areas of the country.
Example Italy: "The lockdown worked"
Can developments like in France and Spain still be stopped?
Can a second wave like in spring be prevented?
When Italy's Health Minister Roberto Speranza stepped before Parliament on Wednesday, he was relieved to see.
"The lockdown in our country worked," said the 41-year-old head of department, the behavior of the Italians and the government's measures had successfully lowered the infection curve.
The government in Rome currently has 23 positives per 100,000 people.
In France this rate is 88 and in Spain 205 infected.
Italy has a "considerable advantage over the vast majority of European countries," said Speranza.
However, the situation is not quite as rosy in his home country either.
The number of positive test results between South Tyrol and Sardinia has been rising continuously for weeks, most recently by more than 1,300 infected people per day.
That is significantly less than in Spain or France, but the nervousness is growing.
Norway, the first European country, has just issued another travel warning for Italy.
Virologists attribute the relative success of Italy to the particularly strict and particularly long lockdown in the country.
At the beginning of March, Rome was the first European government to impose nationwide curfews, which were only gradually relaxed in May - more slowly and in more cautious steps than in other EU countries.
What's next
The governments in Madrid, Paris and Rome - like other EU countries - rely on recognizing regional outbreaks as early as possible and isolating breeding centers.
Sufficient test capacities are available and the need for hospital beds and, above all, intensive care places is precisely recorded, assure Italian crisis managers, for example.
The situation in the hospitals is still relatively relaxed.
But what if the average age of those infected - in Italy it is just 29 years - should rise again?
When the emergency rooms get another onslaught?
The governments in Italy, Spain and France absolutely want to prevent a new national lockdown.
It would have disastrous consequences for the economy.
And it would also make the differences in the euro zone even more apparent.
But in France at least, as Prime Minister Jean Castex said recently, the contingency plans for another national standstill are already in the ministries' drawers.
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