Covid 19 coronavirus: the huge virus spike in Europe

Coronavirus cases in Europe have started to increase dramatically, with a total of 500,000 cases in Spain, raising fears that other nations could be next.

Total cases in Spain topped the half-million mark overnight as the government struggled to contain a wave of infections in one of Europe’s worst-hit countries.

The country of around 47 million people has registered 525,549 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 29,516 related deaths, since its first case was diagnosed on January 31 on the remote island of La Gomera in the Canary Islands, said the Ministry of Health of the nation.

Now there is also concern about the increase in cases in France and the UK.

In Britain, people are being warned that they are on a “bumpy ride” for several months after cases spiked over the weekend.

Parts of the UK are facing tighter restrictions after cases rose by 2,988 on Sunday, the country’s highest total since May 22, and a further 2,948 cases were recorded yesterday.

England’s deputy chief medical officer says the increase is “very worrying” and that the nation must start taking the virus seriously again.

“People have become too relaxed, now is the time to re-engage and realize that this is an ongoing threat to us,” Professor Van Tam told the BBC overnight.

He said that hospital admissions and deaths were “at a very low level” in the UK and that the increase in cases was most prominent among 17-21 year olds and the country’s risks following the trajectory of some UK countries. the European Union.

On Monday, the UK added seven Greek islands to its coronavirus quarantine list, but the mainland remains exempted as the government seeks a more specific way to limit new cases abroad.

Transportation Secretary Grant Shapps said that anyone arriving from Lesbos, Tinos, Serifos, Mykonos, Crete, Santorini or Zakynthos from Wednesday must isolate themselves for fifteen days.

Another nation that is seeing an increase in cases is France, which recorded another 7,071 new cases Sunday night, following an increase of around 8,500 on Saturday and nearly 9,000 new cases on Friday.

But the death rate is well below that recorded at the height of the health crisis in late March and April, when nearly 900 deaths were reported a day, as the median age of new infections dropped to around of 40.

Asymptomatic cases also account for a much higher proportion of positive results, largely due to an increase in testing.

“The situation is much more favorable but we are still in an ascending phase,” the emergency coordinator of the Ministry of Health, Fernando Simón, told reporters.

The surge in infections comes as Spain is reopening its schools after they closed in March, and some parents say they are afraid to send their children to classes.

The government has implemented several measures to curb the risk of infections in schools, including requiring the use of masks for anyone six years and older and the need to wash their hands frequently.

Last month, he ordered the closure of nightclubs and cocktail bars and reduced the hours of operation of restaurants to try to stem the increase in infections.

The government expects the tourism-dependent country’s economy to contract 9.2 percent this year under the weight of the pandemic.