The photos of the celebrations of England for the Eurocopa that turn on the alerts for a new wave of COVID-19

“Football is coming home” It is the song that millions of Englishmen sing these days, gathered around the European Championship in which their team will play the final. But they could also “take home” a contagion of COVID, before the wave of infections that is advancing at full speed and, according to experts, will exceed previous records of the pandemic in British territory.

The Boris Johnson government has announced that it plans to lift all sanitary restrictions on July 19 and calls for individual responsibility. “The country must learn to live with COVID”, Said the Secretary of Health, Sajid Javid.

Although the number of new cases is skyrocketing to around 25,000 daily due to the highly contagious Delta variantThanks to vaccines, this has not translated into a sharp increase in hospitalizations and deaths. For the government, that justifies the decision to end all legal impositions established by the pandemic in the country with the most deaths from COVID in Europe.

However, Wednesday’s images in London (and to a lesser extent in other cities) of England’s triumph over Denmark and qualification for the final were far from resembling a context of personal responsibility.

In addition to the more than 60,000 spectators at London’s Wembley Stadium, the English victory triggered scenes of jubilation in the streets, as fans celebrated that their team had reached the final of a major tournament for the first time since the 1966 World Cup. .

Social gatherings will be repeated on Sunday, when England face Italy in the final, and in case of winning the championship the lack of control in the streets would be even greater.

The government’s own estimates indicated that on July 19 there would be 50,000 cases a day, and shortly thereafter the number of infections would reach 100,000. However, the transmission could be even faster: Imperial College London reported that new cases are doubling every six days.

A widely followed study on coronavirus infections indicated that men’s gatherings to follow matches could be one reason women have been less likely to test positive in the virus in recent days in England.

The provisioning results for the period between June 24 and July 5, prepared by Imperial College London and the pollster Ipsos Mori, showed that infections had quadrupled since the previous study, known as React-1. According to the survey, one in 170 people in England has been infected.

The prevalence of the virus was also higher in men – 0.7% versus 0.5% in women – according to Professor Paul Elliott, director of the React program at Imperial College’s School of Public Health. This could be because men’s gatherings in homes and pubs to watch European tournament matches had been a factor in the trend, he noted.

On Wednesday, fans waving flags in London’s Trafalgar Square left their seats to melt into a huge crowd swaying after the final whistle. A group of fans got on a double-decker bus. You had to look carefully to find one of them who keeps the mask on.

The phenomenon had already been noticed in Russia, where Eurocup matches were also played, with audiences in the stadiums.

“Despite the fact that the organizers of the Eurocup tried to comply with the restrictive measures, the citizens could not comply with them strictly in the heat of the emotions. We are currently observing an increase in infections in the city, but we are controlling the situation, ”said Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Gólikova on Tuesday, referring to the rise in infections in Saint Petersburg, a city that hosted six meetings.

The London authorities also use the Eurocup but to try to speed up vaccination among young people. Those who have requested their turn between Tuesday and Thursday will automatically participate in a draw for tickets for the final of the tournament. “We are trying to encourage as many Londoners as possible to get vaccinated,” explained Mayor Sadiq Khan.

(With information from AP, AFP, EFE)

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