Covid spreads as Luxembourgers return from summer break abroad

The new cases and the critically ill are predominantly among unvaccinated people

Yesterday, during a press conference, Luxembourgish Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said that the recent rise in Covid cases is mainly caused by people returning from vacations abroad. For the first time in many months, the main source of infections is not family and close friends.

The new cases spiked by almost 50% since last Sunday and Prime Minister Bettel expects a further increase over the coming weeks.

Bringing back unwanted souvenirs from abroad

Data from the Health Ministry corroborated the Prime Minister’s claims, showing that 38.4% of the cases happened due to travel, while just 25.2% occurred from transmission in the family circle. Leisure activities accounted for only 3.1% of infections.

According to the Health Ministry, this is a notable development since the family was the main cause for the spread of the disease for the past year. The vaccination rate has also slowed down over the past few weeks because a lot of people are on holiday. Health authorities administered 8,170 doses between 16 and 22 August. However, with just 63% of the population fully vaccinated, Luxembourg is still away from something resembling herd immunity.

The disease continues to attack young and unvaccinated people. The new spike in cases is largely in the 15-29 age group, with 104 cases per 100,000 although there is a significant rise among 0 to 14-year-olds. These age groups have, on average, the lowest vaccination rates, with the latter group not able to get the shot at all.

Three-quarters of the newly registered cases and all of the critical cases were in non vaccinated people. At the same time, the new and more contagious Delta Variant accounts for 93.65% of the new cases in the country.

Prime Minister Xavier Bettel was adamant that Covid is not over yet.