Europe has been hit by a massive roll-out of anti-coronavirus measures, which has brought with it, among other things, a rush to open clubs, discos and beaches. Reports are already coming in from various countries that Covid is spreading among the younger generation, who have not yet been vaccinated. Scientists believe that it is the young who are now most at risk.
Is covid becoming a disease of the young? According to the journal Nature, the trend suggests so. According to statistics from Scotland, Israel and Spain, the coronavirus has spread mainly among the young in the last month.
Forty percent of the people who contracted coronavirus in Israel in the last month were in the 10 to 19 age group. The second most at risk group, according to the Israeli Ministry of Health, are children under the age of nine. Although the country has been a vaccine pioneer, the young generation there is not rushing to vaccination sites.
It is a similar story in Spain, where exuberant summer celebrations are in full swing. Young people from abroad are also heading out to join in the fun. And testing of students returning to Belgium from the Spanish city of Lloret de Mar, for example, showed that at least eight of them had contracted coronavirus, according to the Belgian website The Brussels Times. Meanwhile, the dreaded delta mutation is spreading in Spain, causing wrinkles for many an epidemiologist.
At the end of June, Spain quarantined some 5 000 students who were enjoying themselves on the island of Mallorca. Of this group, up to 1 200 have been infected.