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With over 2.2 million new cases and more than 28,000 deaths over the past week and many countries hitting never-before-seen highs for infections, Europe is now COVID-19’s global epicenter, according to the World Health Organization.
National leaders are cracking down in a continental scramble to contain the coronavirus before the holidays. ...
As most of Europe suffers a COVID-anxiety attack, however, la buena vida continues in Spain. Crowds revel at terrace bars, drinking sangria and eating tapas into the night, the clubs have reopened, crowds frolic at beach parties and wine festivals, and unlike in many Western European countries, a vaccine passport is still not required. According to Statista, the COVID rate in Spain over the past seven days is 46 per 100,000 population, compared to Austria at 851, the Netherlands at 539 and Slovenia at 1,058.
The reason for the relatively carefree mood across Spain, said Dr. Daniel Lopez-Acuña, former director of Health Action in Crisis at WHO, is the country’s very high vaccination rate, nearing 90 percent of those 12 and older, and its continued protection measures, like indoor mask mandates, which, unlike most places, Spain never dropped.
Those precautions are paying off. “Spain is doing particularly well compared to other European countries,” Lopez-Acuña told Yahoo News, crediting health agencies, stringent class-size reductions and mask wearing in schools, and a science-accepting public, as well as long-enduring COVID restrictions. ...
