The summer of Europe unravels with Covid Spikes and Journey Chaos

Photographer: Jeremy Suyker / Bloomberg

If this summer would offer hope that coronavirus was under control in Europe, spikes in cases across the continent and subsequent travel chaos have given governments a worrying reality check.

From France to Ukraine, the number of positive tests for Covid-19 is increasing sharply as more people seek holiday and aftercare measures were required to unite citizens. Germany reported the most recent cases since May, while France said the situation was deteriorating, particularly in the cities of Paris and Marseille. Greece also sees the highest daily increase in infections since the start of the pandemic.

The British government added France and the Netherlands to a list of countries from which people must be quarantined for 14 days upon arrival in the UK. Travel has declined. In Eastern Europe, which was hit less hard, some countries approached near-record numbers of daily cases.

Chief of the French health agency Jerome Salomon said that large family associations, such as marriages, and workplaces are common places of infection. “One can only worry when there are hundreds of new people in the hospital,” Salomon said told France Inter. He urged people to distance themselves socially in order to avoid the March and April crisis that “no one wants to go through again.”

It would always be a gamble, as countries sought to open up their economies in an attempt to curb the evolving financial crisis. Closing businesses and ordering people to stay home again is something political leaders remain happy to do given the gloomy economic forecast and millions of jobs at risk, especially in tourism.

Spanish warning

As infections continued to increase in Spain, the main business lobby is on Thursday warned that every second lockdown would have catastrophic consequences and urged the government to promote the use of a new app developed by the Ministry of Economy to detect cases of Covid-19. New cases in Spain have jumped to the highest level since at least May 25, when the government changed its methodology for reporting data.

In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has removed lockdown measures, although he has taken care not to let a second wave of cases come out of arrivals from abroad. His government has already launched an inquiry into the aftermath of the crisis after Britain recorded the highest death toll in Europe.

Hundreds of thousands of British tourists are now forced to quarantine on their return after the government added France, the Netherlands and Malta to their list of destinations for virus problems.

The new rules, which take effect from 4 a.m. on Saturday, are likely to be in place chaotic shake for tickets on flights, trains and ferries for cars for 160,000 Britons currently on holiday in France. The French government said it regretted the decision and warned that it would lead to reciprocal action.

“The top priority should be to protect our hard-won profits by getting the virus under control and not importing it when people return home,” UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told Times Radio on Friday. “It’s a public health problem where we just can not turn our backs.”

‘Calculated risk’

Back in June, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis talks about how he took a “calculated risk” of returning foreign visitors to the country beaches and resorts.

After the jump in cases, his government ordered bars, restaurants and clubs to close at midnight in the Athens region and set an upper limit of 50 people at social events such as weddings in places particularly affected by the virus. The isssue are young people returning to large urban areas from holidaying on islands, said Minister of Defense Nikos Hardalias on Friday.