Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Not only are careless Indians inviting a deadlier third wave of the pandemic by thronging pilgrim and tourist sites, but their counterparts in Europe and elsewhere are also not far behind.
The situation is so alarming that a scientist from the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday that watching unmasked crowds singing and shouting at the Euro 2020 football final in London on Sunday was “devastating” as she expressed concerns that it would spur Covid-19 transmission, including of the Delta variant.
In recent weeks, as restrictions relaxed in India with warnings to observe utmost care, massive crowds threw the caution to winds and rushed to the hill stations in the Himalayas, pilgrimage centers, and thronged all crowded places. Social media were replete with their videos and photographs.
The Union Ministry of Health, and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have expressed serious concern at these blatant violations of protocols, as infections have not ended and new variants are still being reported.
In Europe also, the story is no different.
The Covid-19 infections in the United Kingdom have been surging, driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant and the lifting of restrictions amidst ongoing vaccinations. On July 19, almost all remaining restrictions are set to be lifted, including mask-wearing and social distancing mandates.
But the football fanatics could not wait. Last year also, they had similarly become the coronavirus carriers from Italy, Spain, and other nations—soon they queued up at hospitals and burial grounds.
Media reported that, in the closing stages of the match against Italy on Sunday, the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, Maria Van Kerkhove, tweeted: “Am I supposed to be enjoying watching transmission happening in front of my eyes?”
“The #COVID19 pandemic is not taking a break tonight… #SARSCoV2 #DeltaVariant will take advantage of unvaccinated people, in crowded settings, unmasked, screaming/shouting/singing. Devastating.”
The WHO had issued warnings that tournament crowds would fuel coronavirus cases. “We know that in a context of increasing transmission, large mass gatherings can act as amplifiers,” Katie Smallwood, WHO’s senior emergency officer, had said early this month.
The European Parliament’s Committee on Public Health described the decision to allow 60,000 fans into London’s Wembley Stadium as “a recipe for disaster”. Hundreds of cases have already been linked to the tournament, including nearly 1,300 Scotland fans who traveled to London for their team’s fixture against England on June 18, and also 300 Finns returning from St Petersburg, and multiple infections in Copenhagen.
Given that Covid-19 is primarily an airborne infection – the highest risk of transmission is in indoor settings (with limited or no ventilation), although events that include lots of people in close proximity outdoors are also risky, reports said.
So, although the crowd shouting and singing outdoors during the match is not ideal – “it’s all the bars, buses, trains, homes where millions are doing this at the same time”, tweeted Catherine Noakes, professor of environmental engineering for buildings at the University of Leeds.