Italy is the country that is the hardest hit by Covid-19. Italy won the Eurovision Song Contest with a glam performance and the victory has signaled a psychological boost for the country which has been rocked by Covid-19. The annual kitsch fest was held before a live, indoor audience of 3500 and it has confirmed that Europe was returning to a semblance of normalcy that was very much unthinkable even a few weeks ago.
Hospitalizations, coronavirus infections, and deaths have been plummeting across the continent after Europe has led the world in new cases last fall and winter in waves that cost hundreds and thousands of lives and forced more rolling lockdowns and overwhelmed intensive care units.
At this time, vaccination rates are accelerating across Europe and along with it the promise of summer vacations in Crete, Ibiza, and Corsica. There is also hope for the rebirth of the tourism industry that in Italy and Spain alone accounts for 13 percent of gross domestic product but it has been wiped out by the pandemic.
According to Guglielmo Miani, who is the president of Milan’s Montenapoleone luxury shopping district has said that they do not speak about 2020 rather they speak about from today onwards. This is the shopping district where the American and European tourists have started trickling back and are wooed in parts by in-person meetups with design teams and also free breakfasts in iconic cafes. They are hoping that the Asian tourists will follow next year.
Europe has seen the largest decline in new Covid-19 infections and deaths this week compared to any other region while it has also reported about 44 percent of adults had received at least one dose of the vaccine according to the European Centre of Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization.
The seven-day rolling average of Europe for new cases per 10000 people had been higher than any other region from mid-October through the start of December and it ceded the unwanted top spot to the Americas over the new year before reclaiming it from early February through April according to an analysis of data by the Associated Press and from the John Hopkins University.
No European countries are among the top 10 for the new cases per 100,000 people. Only, Lithuania, Sweden, and Georgia are in the top 20.
But the virus has been spiking in Southeast Asia and most parts of Latin America and it has also hit the Maldives and Seychelles very hard this week according to Michael Ryan, the chief of emergencies from WHO. He has also warned that the global situation is still very volatile and fragile and Europe is by no means out of the woods.
He has also warned that the relaxing measures have contributed prematurely to the surge that has seen throughout 2020 and also during the first quarter of 2021 and said the vaccination coverage should be increased.
