The coronavirus is returning to several European countries and is causing some “great concern”, explains the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

In a new report released Thursday, September 24, this European Union agency based in Stockholm, Sweden, focuses its concerns on seven European Union countries: Spain, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary , the Czech Republic and Malta.

This group of countries shows "a higher proportion of severe cases or hospitalizations", with an increase in mortality "already observed" or "which could be soon", according to the ECDC.

And the European agency responsible for monitoring epidemics continues: “In some local / regional areas of these countries, healthcare delivery is already under pressure, with high occupancy rates of hospital beds and nursing units. intensive care, as well as high levels (regarding) fatigue of healthcare workers. ”

The concern in these seven countries stems in particular from the fact that the rise in cases concerns the elderly.

“The improvements that have been made in case management, treatment and care are still not enough to prevent serious illness and death of a large proportion of vulnerable patients,” says ECDC.

Therefore, the overall risk of Covid-19 in these countries is rated as “high for the general population” and “very high for the vulnerable”.

Difficult protection

Other European countries “with worrying trends”, according to the European agency, are mainly seeing increases in Covid-19 cases in younger adults, and therefore less at risk.

This sub-group includes France, the United Kingdom, Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Belgium and Sweden.

>> To read: Covid-19: a new scientific model predicts contamination peaks in Europe

“The impact of the disease is still low, (with) a moderate overall risk of Covid-19 for the general population” in these countries, notes the ECDC.

But in recent days, the majority of this category "seems to be approaching the classification criteria of great concern", in particular because of new cases in the elderly, underlines the agency.

According to ECDC, “it should be noted that with a high volume of transmission continuing for several weeks, protecting vulnerable people becomes difficult.

And since the impact in these groups is very high, the risk for this population remains very high. ”

A level of immunity “below 15%” in most regions of the EU

Finally, the remaining countries where the risk is "low" for the general population and "moderate" for those at risk are considered to be in a stable situation: Germany, Italy, Poland, Finland, Greece, Cyprus, Lithuania and, excluding from the EU, Norway.

ECDC underlines that in the EU "the vulnerability of the population remains high": "The data available from seroprevalence studies suggest that the level of immunity in the population is below 15% in most regions of the EU and UK ", explains the agency. And it continues:" As a vaccine will not be available in the short term, the vulnerability of the population to infection remains high. On this basis, the overall likelihood of infection is very high ”in part of the EU countries.

"Most people can still be infected," ECDC Director Andrea Ammon said during an online press conference with EU Commissioner Stella Kyriakides.

"What we are observing in many countries, not just in Spain, is that a large part of the current contaminations is due to private meetings, large family dinners or all kinds of meetings with friends or relatives" , she stressed.

The boss of the ECDC, on the other hand, refused to call for a general closure of shops, restaurants or bars.

"It depends on how it is possible or not to provide" basic measures "of physical distancing in those places, she said.

With AFP

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