For the fourth day in a row, Friday July 2, Russia recorded a record of daily deaths from the coronavirus. In twenty-four hours, the government recorded 679 dead. With a total of around 136,000 deaths attributed to Covid-19, according to government figures, and at least 270,000 according to the federal statistics agency, Rosstat, which has a broader definition, Russia is the European country most bereaved by the pandemic. And cases of contamination linked to the Delta variant, which is much more contagious, are currently on the rise there.
In this worrying health context, 30,000 spectators will fill the Saint Petersburg stadium on Friday July 2. For this first quarter-final of Euro 2021, between Switzerland and Spain, the stadium’s gauge has been maintained at 50% of its capacity, at the same level since the start of the tournament.
“As a doctor, I am of course opposed to the organization of any mass event”, said Alexei Dmitriev, doctor in protective gear in the Mariinskaya hospital, interviewed by Reuters. “Of course, we expect an increase in the number of patients after the organization of such mass events”, he laments.
Originally, Russia’s second most populous city was to host four matches of the tournament, which takes place in 11 countries. But in April, St. Petersburg recovered from the scheduled first-round fixtures in Dublin, which was then unable to guarantee a stadium that was at least 25% full, as required by the Union of European Football Associations ( UEFA). Thus, before the arrival of Swiss and Spanish supporters on July 2, Russians, Belgians, Finns, Poles, Slovaks and Swedes had already gone there to support their team.
Cluster among Finnish supporters
On June 16 and 21, the Finnish team successively faced Russia and Belgium at the Saint Petersburg stadium. Less than five hours drive from Helsinki, the destination was conducive to the movement of several thousand supporters. Back home, nearly 300 of them tested positive for the coronavirus, Finnish authorities said on June 28.
Consequence: the same day, the mayor of Helsinki gave up lifting the health restrictions in the Finnish capital. “There are so many infections (…), the situation is clearly different from what it was a week ago ”, justified Jan Vapaavuori.
Russia is not the only host country where the Euro is believed to have accelerated the spread of the virus. In Scotland, three matches of the first round were played in Glasgow in front of 12,000 spectators and, above all, a tide of kilts invaded London on June 18, during the England-Scotland match. And if the gauge of Wembley Stadium was limited to 25% of its capacity (22,500 people), the majority of Scottish supporters had moved without tickets to raise their elbow in the streets or in parks.
In a report released this week by Public Health Scotland, the Scottish public health agency has identified 2,000 Covid-19 contaminations of people who attended one or more Euro matches between June 11 and June 18. Of these, two-thirds traveled to London on June 18, during their infectious period. “Some have been able to propagate [le virus] with them in London, others were able to contract it when they returned home ”, explains Professor Jason Leitch, the director of health and social protection of Scotland, interviewed by the BBC.
“If we want to seed Europe with this Delta variant, we would not go about it otherwise”, thunders epidemiologist Antoine Flahault
Tuesday 6, Wednesday 7 and Sunday 11 July, Wembley stadium will be the scene of the two semi-finals and the final of the Euro. This week, the British authorities confirmed the increase in the reception capacity to 75% of the stadium’s capacity, or 60,000 people, as desired by UEFA. A relaxation of health restrictions that worries the World Health Organization (WHO).
The director of the WHO’s European branch, Hans Kluge, regretted, during an online press conference on Thursday, “That some stadiums hosting the tournament are currently raising the number of spectators allowed to see a match”. In addition to the Wembley case, the gauge at Parken Stadium in Copenhagen was also increased from 16,000 to 25,000 spectators for the Croatia-Spain round of 16 on 28 June.
“Total nonsense”
“If we want to seed Europe with this Delta variant, we wouldn’t do it any other way”, thunders the epidemiologist Antoine Flahault, who pleads for a relocation of the matches planned in London and Saint Petersburg. “It is total nonsense to send supporters to places at very high risk”, told AFP the director of the Institute of Global Health (University of Geneva), citing Bucharest, Budapest or Copenhagen – three other host cities of the Euro – as possible alternatives at lower risk.
In the political sphere, too, voices are raised against the relaxation of health restrictions in Euro stadiums. Margaritis Schinas, one of the vice-presidents of the European Commission, considers the holding of these events inconsistent at a time when travel abroad by British nationals is still limited. “This is not a decision that we will have to take at the Commission. It belongs to UEFA. But I want to share my doubts about the possibility of organizing the semi-final and the final of the Euro at Wembley, in a packed stadium, while the United Kingdom limits the movements of its citizens to the EU “, Schinas said in Brussels on June 28.
Italian council chairman Mario Draghi last week echoed this, hoping that the final “Does not take place in a country where contagions are growing rapidly”.
Beyond the case of England and Russia, was it reasonable to organize this Euro in eleven European cities with regard to the health situation? It is permissible to doubt it. After ten weeks of the pandemic’s decline, the number of cases increased by 10% last week in Europe, due to “Increased mixing, travel, gatherings and the relaxation of social restrictions”, points out the WHO. Hans Kluge warns: “There will be a new wave in the European region, unless we stay disciplined. “
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