Euro 2020 has been blamed for a surge in coronavirus cases after fans flocked to stadiums, bars and spectator zones across Europe to watch the action as the pandemic raged.
Key points:
- WHO said the mixing of crowds in Euro 2020 host cities, travel and easing of social restrictions had driven up the number of new cases by 10 per cent
- German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said UEFA’s position was “utterly irresponsible”
- Italy has warned fans from England against trying to sneak in for the quarter-final match against Ukraine
Germany’s interior minister called European football’s governing body UEFA “utterly irresponsible” for allowing big crowds at the tournament.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said the mixing of crowds in Euro 2020 host cities, travel and easing of social restrictions had driven up the number of new cases by 10 per cent.
WHO senior emergency officer Catherine Smallwood warned a 10-week decline in new infections across Europe had come to an end and a new wave was inevitable if football fans and others dropped their guards.
“We need to look much beyond just the stadiums themselves,” Ms Smallwood told reporters.
“We need to look at how people get there, are they travelling in large crowded convoys of buses? And when they leave the stadiums, are they going into crowded bars and pubs to watch the matches?
With COVID-19 restrictions varying from nation to nation, crowd sizes have ranged from completely full — such as in Budapest, where a crowd of 60,000 attended a game — to 25-45 per cent capacity in other venues where there have often been crowds of 10,000 to 15,000 spectators.
AP: Kirsty Wigglesworth
)UEFA said it was fully aligned with local health authorities’ guidelines at every venue.
“The final decisions with regards to the number of fans attending matches and the entry requirements to any of the host countries and host…