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appalachiablue

(41,056 posts)
Wed Jul 29, 2020, 12:44 AM Jul 2020

"Europe Scrambles To Avoid A Second Coronavirus Wave, As Infections Rise'

'Europe scrambles to avoid a second coronavirus wave, as infections rise.' By Loveday Morris, Michael Birnbaum and Fiona Weber-Steinhaus. Washington Post, July 28, 2020.

BERLIN — Several European countries that had their coronavirus outbreaks under control have begun to see a rise in cases that is feeding fears of a second wave. Governments are urging their citizens to be more vigilant amid the lure of summer gatherings and vacations, while health officials warn that lax public attitudes are putting the continent on a dangerous trajectory.

A spike in infections has led Belgium to ramp up restrictions on social contact, while Spain has closed gyms and nightclubs in Barcelona. Meanwhile, German health officials have called a rise in infections in the past two weeks deeply concerning. “People are being infected everywhere,” said Ute Rexroth, head of surveillance at Germany’s Robert Koch Institute, which sounded the alarm on rising numbers on Tuesday. “Weddings, meetings with friends, sadly, also nursing homes or health institutes. We are worried that this could be a change of trend.”

The rise in cases across several countries follows weeks of stability that had ushered in a growing sense of normalcy. A wave of reopening measures had come and gone without significant ill effect. People went to movies, dined at restaurants and started working from offices again. But some virologists had warned that openings would inevitably be followed by new infections. Others stressed that successful reopening was dependent on citizens wearing masks and maintaining social distance. And there are signs adherence has been slipping.

On the tree-lined streets of Brussels, masks have been a rare sight. In Berlin, famed for its 24-hour pre-pandemic party scene, police have struggled to break up crowds of weekend revelers who gather in parks and open spaces for illicit dance parties. Spanish nightclubs and beaches brimmed with vacationers after European travel restrictions eased. More and more people are getting relaxed,” said Dirk Brockmann, a professor at Berlin’s Humboldt University who works on pandemic modeling with the Robert Koch Institute. “People are wearing a face mask going shopping or on the subway, but other than that they are going back to normal.”...

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/europe-coronavirus-second-wave/2020/07/28/8dd12632-d0d1-11ea-826b-cc394d824e35_story.html

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