The new hotspots

新热点

Curbing the covid-19 comeback in Europe

虽然对新冠病毒采取遏制措施但是其在欧洲卷土重来

Young people are flouting the rules

年轻人在藐视这些规定

 

Aug 1st 2020 |

THE WAVES of an epidemic tend to rise like a tsunami—slowly, almost surreptitiously, before a precipitous surge. In parts of Europe there are now fears that covid-19 cases may again be nearing a menacing inflection point. In Spain, daily new cases in the week to July 28th have risen sharply to nearly ten times the low they had descended to in June, when the lockdown was lifted. Less dramatic but worrying increases in cases are starting to bubble up in other European countries.

流行病的浪潮往往会像海啸一样上升——在陡然上升之前，缓慢地，几乎是偷偷摸摸地（增长）。在欧洲部分地区，现在（人们）担心covid-19病例可能再次接近一个危险的拐点。在西班牙，截至7月28日的一周内，每天的新病例急剧上升，几乎是6月解除封锁时所降最低水平的10倍。其他欧洲国家的病例增长虽然不那么引人注目，但却令人担忧。

词汇

Tsunami/海啸

Surreptitiously/偷偷地；秘密地；不正当地

Precipitous/险峻的；急躁的

Menacing/威胁的；险恶的

For the moment, the spikes in Europe are largely confined to a few hotspot countries, regions within them or even towns. Infection rates are particularly high in the Balkans and in Spain, which has notched up about 27 cases per 100,000 people in the past week. The corresponding case rate in Germany, France and Italy is in the single digits. In both low- and high-rate countries, the bulk of new cases is often concentrated in particular locations. Roughly two-thirds of Spain’s cases in the past week are from just two regions, Catalonia and Aragon, which are home to a fifth of Spaniards. About 20% of Italy’s cases in the same period are in the Emilia-Romagna region, which has just 7% of the population.

目前，欧洲的高峰主要局限于几个热点国家、地区甚至城镇。巴尔干半岛和西班牙的感染率尤其高，在过去一周，每10万人中约有27人感染新冠病毒。德国、法国和意大利的相应病例率为个位数。在低发病率和高发病率国家，大部分新病例往往集中在特定地点。过去一周，西班牙约有三分之二的病例来自两个地区，加泰罗尼亚和阿拉贡，这两个地区居住着五分之一的西班牙人。同期意大利约20%的病例发生在人口仅占7%的艾米利亚-罗马涅地区。

词汇

notch up /完成；创下；达到

The rise in cases across Europe is not surprising, says Hans Kluge of the World Health Organisation. As lockdowns were lifted and people resumed travel and mingling, both imported cases and the local spread of the virus have pushed tallies up. What is different now is that testing and tracing systems are catching local spikes early, and authorities are battling them with localised measures. On July 27th Antwerp, Belgium’s most populous province, announced a night curfew for non-essential movement and made masks mandatory in public spaces; people were told to stay at home as much as possible. Covid clusters have emerged across Germany, in care homes, workplaces and private parties, forcing officials to impose localised lockdowns. In mid-July the Catalan authorities reimposed a strict lockdown in Lleida, a city of 140,000. Nightclubs in Barcelona and other hotspots in Spain were recently shut or ordered to close early.

世界卫生组织的汉斯•克鲁格表示，整个欧洲病例的增加并不令人惊讶。随着封锁被解除，人们重新开始旅行和交往，输入病例和病毒在当地的传播都推高了死亡人数。现在的不同之处在于，检测和追踪系统可以很早就捕捉到当地的峰值，当局正在用当地的措施来对付它们。7月27日，比利时人口最多的省份安特卫普宣布对非必要活动实施宵禁，并强制规定在公共场所佩戴口罩;人们被告知尽可能呆在家里。新冠患者集群在德国各地出现，在养老院、工作场所和私人聚会中都有，迫使官员们实施了地方封锁。7月中旬，加泰罗尼亚当局在拥有14万人口的莱达市重新实施了严格的封锁。巴塞罗那和西班牙其他热点地区的夜总会最近被勒令关闭或提前关门。

词汇

Mingling/交际

Curfew/  宵禁；宵禁令

Mandatory/强制的；托管的；命令的

Cluster/群；簇

Reimpose/重新实施（法律，规章等）

Varying covid-19 rates across Europe have prompted countries to make some tough choices. In a normal year, some 18m Britons seek fun in the sun in Spain, along with lots of other northern Europeans. But as cases in Spain notched up, Britain and Norway swiftly brought back quarantine for people coming from Spain. Vacationers to Greece from some Balkan countries must now show proof of a negative covid-19 test to enter the country. That has dealt a blow to whatever remained of the foreign tourist season in much of southern Europe. But there has been a collective sigh of relief among health officials watching with trepidation clubs and beaches crowded with drunk foreigners.

欧洲各地不同的新冠发病率促使各国做出一些艰难的选择。正常情况下，大约有1800万英国人会和其他北欧人一起去西班牙享受阳光。但随着西班牙病例的增多，英国和挪威迅速采取了对来自西班牙的人的隔离措施。一些巴尔干国家的度假者现在必须出示新冠检测呈阴性的证据才能进入希腊。这对南欧大部分地区剩余的外国旅游旺季造成了沉重打击。但在那些挤满了喝醉酒的外国人的令人恐惧的俱乐部和海滩上，卫生官员们都松了一口气。

词汇

Trepidation/  恐惧；惊恐

That, however, still leaves the matter of intensifying local transmission. A pattern that cuts across Europe is that new cases have been mostly among people in their 20s and 30s; clusters linked to large parties have become a recurring theme across the continent. German politicians have warned that citizens are growing complacent about the dangers; surveys confirm suspicions that fewer people are avoiding crowded public spaces or private gatherings. Dr Kluge says that the priority in Europe now is to ensure that young people comply more with such precautions. If that fails, he says, it won’t be long before infections spread to older, vulnerable people.

然而，这仍然留下了加强局部传播的问题。一个贯穿整个欧洲的模式是，新病例主要发生在二三十岁的人群中;与大型派对有关的集群已成为整个欧洲大陆反复出现的主题。德国政界人士警告称，民众对危险越来越自满;调查证实了人们的猜测，即越来越少的人会避开拥挤的公共场所或私人聚会。克鲁格博士说，欧洲目前的首要任务是确保年轻人更多地遵守此类预防措施。他说，如果这样做失败了，感染很快就会扩散到老年人和脆弱的人群。

词汇

Comply/遵守；顺从

As the summer starts to wind down, the need to contain outbreaks across Europe will become increasingly acute. A huge worry in all countries is the autumn, when people start to spend more time indoors and flu and other respiratory infections rise as they do every year, filling hospital beds. Countries that reach that point with a high plateau of covid-19 cases could see a return to exponential growth that overwhelms hospitals again. Across Europe, they are better prepared for a second wave than they were for the first, with new measures to curb the spread of covid-19 in hospitals and extra beds and field hospitals that are mothballed now. But how hard they are hit will depend largely on how much their citizens choose to play by the rules of the new normal.

随着夏季逐渐结束，控制疫情在整个欧洲蔓延的必要性将变得越来越迫切。所有国家都非常担心秋天，这个时候人们开始花更多的时间在室内，流感和其他呼吸道感染也像每年一样增加，挤满了医院的病床。达到这一水平、新冠病例高发的国家可能会再次出现指数增长，使医院不堪重负。在整个欧洲，由于采取了遏制新冠肺炎在医院传播的新措施，以及增加了床位和现已封存的野战医院，他们对第二波疫情的准备工作比第一波更为充分。但他们受到的打击有多严重，将在很大程度上取决于他们的公民在多大程度上选择遵守新常态的规定。