COVID-19 spread in Europe: The soccer connection

(Verbreitung von COVID-19 in Europa: Die Fußball-Verbindung)

Introduction: Mass gatherings such as sports events are potential causes for the rapid spread of COVID-19 infection. Millions of soccer fans travel across Europe every week. With the world`s most popular leagues continuing play until the second week of March 2020, we hypothesize that a correlation exists between the number of people attending the soccer league games in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and the UK and the increasing number of cases of COVID-19 in these countries during the ongoing epidemic. Methods: We have calculated the total number of attendees in the five major soccer leagues from the popular sports websites and the official pages of the league. The total number of COV-ID-19 cases were taken from the Worldometer websites. Results: The average attendees in the last game week of five major soccer leagues during the second week of March 2020 ranged from 189,545 to 511,524. The total number of COVID-19 cases was 350,000. Conclusion: Mass movement of spectators among different cities in the European countries to attend major soccer league matches can be one of the reasons for sudden increase in the COV-ID-19 cases. Before resuming these games, proper planning, surveillance, communication, and necessary modifications are required to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
© Copyright 2020 The University of Louisville Journal of Respiratory Infections. University of Louisville. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Bibliographische Detailangaben
Schlagworte:
Notationen:Spielsportarten Biowissenschaften und Sportmedizin Organisationen und Veranstaltungen
Tagging:Großereignis Sportveranstaltung Coronavirus
Veröffentlicht in:The University of Louisville Journal of Respiratory Infections
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: 2020
Online-Zugang:https://ir.library.louisville.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1108&context=jri
Jahrgang:4
Heft:1
Seiten:Article 46
Dokumentenarten:Artikel
Level:hoch