Changes

The map showing the [[:Archivo:Europa_Principales-aeropuertos-de-la-Union-Europea_2019_mapa_17850_spa.jpg|''Main airports in the European Union'']] tries to highlight the virus’ points of access to the Union from abroad, i.e. the international airports where measures were gradually introduced to slow down the arrival of passengers, first from Asia, then from South Africa, Brazil and the United Kingdom. It also shows the other airports in the network, which subsequently helped to spread the pandemic internally. Air transport flows in the European Union have two main components: business travel and leisure travel. Travel for work-related reasons is more common in the airports located in the main urban areas. Falls in the number of passengers at these airports as a result of lockdowns and reduced mobility were considerable. Frankfurt airport went from 70 million passengers in 2019 to 19 million in 2020; Madrid from 60 million in 2019 to 17 million in 2020; and Munich (München) from 48 million in 2019 to 11 million in 2020. By contrast, airports on the Mediterranean coast and the Canary Islands (islas Canarias) rely heavily on tourism. However, given that the outbreak of the virus happened in winter, during months of low tourist activity, these airports were less impacted by restrictions on mobility during the initial weeks of the pandemic. In June 2020, when the incidence of the virus had been reduced, lockdown measures were scaled-back and the summer tourist season began, some regional administrations in these areas –particularly the island regions– ventured to test tourist corridors, in which virus control systems at airports played a crucial role.

Having analysed the four geographical aspects that show the internal heterogeneity of the European Union and played a decisive role in the way the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the different territories to varying degrees, the statistics have been synthesised on the maps and graphs included on the next page to show the impact of the pandemic across the European Union.

The map showing the [[:Archivo:Europa_Casos-de-COVID--19-en-la-Union-Europea_2020_mapa_17792_spa.jpg|''COVID-19 cases'']] in the European Union reveals how the pandemic spread throughout the territory from January to June 2020. The growth of the disease was explosive during the month of March and the worst figures were registered in April. This may possibly be related to the fact that the European Union had underestimated the risk of a new virus emerging in China, so by the time the pandemic was declared, European health and governance systems were overwhelmed. However, the decision to impose a policy of strict lockdowns in the vast majority of Member States gradually succeeded in reducing the number of infections afterwards. An analysis of the impact by State shows that the severity of the pandemic was uneven: the eastern States were less affected (Slovakia and Hungary recorded the lowest figures); western States that reacted quickly were able to limit the impact (e.g. Portugal, Germany and France); other western States recorded the highest figures (Spain, Ireland, Belgium and Sweden had the highest incidence rates).

The map showing the Deaths from COVID-19 in the European Union reveals a general trend that correlates with the patterns for COVID-19 cases. However, the number of deaths lags behind the number of cases by a couple of weeks. The only significant variation is to be found in Italy, which was the first State to register a community transmission. They reacted quickly and, therefore, managed to limit the transmission figures somewhat. Nevertheless, Italy recorded very high death rates. This is because there were few means to combat the disease during the first weeks of the pandemic, which meant the number of seriously ill and deceased was particularly high at this early stage (at one point, the mortality rate in Italy lied over 50 per 100,000 inhabitants).