During his fourth week at the hotel, Aschenbach observes that there are fewer and fewer guests even though the season should be far from over. The German guests in particular seem to be absent, and speaking with the hotel barber, Aschenbach learns that one family left almost as soon as they arrived. The barber praises Aschenbach for being unafraid of “the plague,” which Aschenbach does not yet know is an outbreak of Indian cholera that the municipal government is attempting to conceal from tourists. Aschenbach is taken aback and tries to question the barber, but the man is deeply embarrassed, denies everything, and determinedly changes the subject.

That afternoon, Aschenbach stalks the Polish family on an excursion into Venice as per his new habit of attempting to follow Tadzio everywhere. He doesn’t find them, but he does smell the sickly-sweet scent of antiseptic and sickness, particularly in the narrower streets of the city. He notices municipal posters, surrounded by silent groups of citizens, warning with careful euphemisms of the dangers that gastrointestinal diseases can pose during this season. The posters warn against the waters of the canals and against eating shellfish. Aschenbach asks a local shopkeeper about the smell of disinfectant but receives only insincere reassurances that it’s an ordinary police precaution to prevent the warm summer sirocco from causing illness.