Lack of awareness of COVID during “devastating” Euro final: WHO

By Emma Farge

GENEVA (Reuters) – A WHO epidemiologist said she was devastated to see unmasked crowds singing and shouting during the Euro 2020 football final in London on Sunday, expressing fears it would spur transmission of COVID-19, including the Delta variant.

Britain is facing a new wave of COVID-19 driven by the most transmissible variant despite one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. It plans to remove most of the remaining anti-coronavirus restrictions on July 19, which worries some scientists.

In unusually direct comments from the United Nations health agency, which typically refrains from commenting on the policies of individual member states, its COVID-19 technical manager, Maria Van Kerkhove, called the sight of the more than 60,000 spectators of the match between Italy and England of “devastating”.

“Am I supposed to enjoy watching the transmission unfold in front of my eyes?” She tweeted at the end of the match.

“The # COVID19 pandemic is not taking a break tonight … # SARSCoV2 #DeltaVariant will benefit the unvaccinated, overcrowded, unmasked, screaming / screaming / singing. Devastating.”

A day of alcohol-fueled festivities had started with rowdy scenes in central London and tens of thousands marched to the National Stadium for the match, with flares launched at stations and singing in trains .

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson this month defended the decision to allow more than 60,000 people to attend the final, saying it was organized in “a prudent and controlled manner with tests on everyone in it. returned “. He says the vaccines have created a “huge wall of immunity.”

Globally, the rate of COVID-19 infection is increasing. There were more than 2.6 million new cases last week, with Europe seeing a sharp increase of 30%, the WHO said in its latest epidemiological update.

More than 4 million people have died since the start of the pandemic.

WHO Emergency Chief Michael Ryan also urged countries last week to exercise extreme caution when lifting COVID-19 restrictions, so as “not to lose the gains you have made. “.

(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Kevin Liffey)