Europe’s Youth Could Be Steering New Coronavirus Cases, Officials Warn

Hans Kluge, the World Health Organization’s Europe regional director, told BBC Radio 4’s Today Wednesday that the organization has been made aware of new coronavirus cases among young people across the continent. 

“We are receiving reports from civil and health authorities of a higher proportion of new infections among young people,” Kluge said Wednesday. “So for me, the call is loud enough to think how to better involve the young people in the response and how [to] engage next to them.”

Kluge said with two daughters, he understood how hard it is for Europe’s youth to be socially distanced for so long—”they do not want to miss a summer,” Kluge said. “But they have a responsibility towards themselves, their parents, grandparents and their communities.”

Recent spates of new infections in some Spanish regions have been tied to large summer parties, the New York Times reported.

France’s Health Minister Olivier Véran said the youth of France should “be more careful,” after they were blamed for localized outbreaks and for spreading it to older generations, adding that the country needs “young people to be vigilant,” Véran told Le Parisien newspaper, according to a translation by The Local.

According to the BBC, The Netherlands has also seen a new trend of more confirmed cases being recorded in young people than among their elders.