This is how the European Football Championship affected the infection process

The Europe-wide study was carried out by the Max Planck Institute together with the Universities of Bonn and Göttingen. Six months after the EURO, the researchers presented their findings. They found that the epidemiological starting point determines how much corona infections increase as a result of a major event such as a European football championship. An example: In the Czech Republic there were around 460 additional infections per million inhabitants. The EURO had a much greater effect in England, where around 11,000 people per million inhabitants were infected with the corona virus.

That’s less because the English national team played more games, but much more because of the completely different starting positions. In the Czech Republic, for example, there were comparatively few infections at the beginning of the tournament, while in England the number of active cases was high. “The big sporting event gave a strong boost to the high number of cases and the high number of reproductions,” says Viola Priesemann from the Max Planck Institute.

According to the study, the European Championship in the twelve countries examined, including Austria, led to around 840,000 additional infections. The majority took place at private meetings, such as in bars and apartments. “The best basis for containing superspreading is a low incidence,” says Philip Bechtle from the University of Bonn. “If vulnerable groups are to be protected, preventive measures are necessary during a major sporting event.”

In order to determine what contribution the EURO made to the infection process, the researchers broke down the number of cases by gender. The football games would be followed by more men than women, so the reasoning. The gender ratio was also reflected in different numbers of infections.

• The study results in detail