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Covid-19 is reviving – another severe winter awaits us, Bloomberg writes. Restaurants and hairdressers are closed. The school is remote. People stay at home after 20.00.
At least one country in Europe has already returned to this regime of complete closure, as Covid erupts again from the United Kingdom, through Russia, to Singapore.
Latvia’s response is the most extreme, but the Baltic nation is not alone in the fight against the 2020 coronavirus jump.
The UK, which vaccinated residents early and lifted most restrictions on Covid, is now seeing the most cases since July. In Germany, they are the highest since May. In countries where vaccination levels are lagging behind, the situation is even worse. With Covid deaths at a record high in Russia, Moscow is heading for a complete blockade this month. Romania has exhausted intensive care beds. The highly contagious version of the delta is causing outbreaks in China and Australia, nations that pursue a policy of zero tolerance against the virus.
In the United States, where severe summer epidemics have subsided, the government is expanding access to booster doses of the vaccine to try to prevent a new wave.
With winter in the Northern Hemisphere, the pandemic is coming to an end, hoping that vaccines will provide a quick way out of the crisis. And while vaccines have been shown to be effective in reducing serious illness and death, they do not always stop infection or transmission, and their potency decreases over time, making the picture more complex than it was a year ago.
“Expected lower temperatures, declining vaccine efficacy and immunization gaps make it difficult to predict the evolution of the epidemic,” said Arno Fontane, an epidemiologist at the Institut Pasteur who advised the French government. “The next three to six weeks will be crucial. “No two countries are alike, but some things are clear: those who have been vaccinated early, such as Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom, are first in line to experience the declining effectiveness of vaccines. Those who maintain additional public health railings – whether it’s masks, immunity, passports or restrictions on gatherings, they seem to be doing better, and those whose citizens have refused vaccines are the worst of them all.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson lifted most restrictions on Covid on July 19, making Britain a test case for reading vaccines in the absence of other measures. This has the opposite effect in the case of young teenagers, for whom the slow introduction of vaccines has led to an explosion of infections in English high schools. Criticized, the government undertook this week to expand access to doses for children aged 12 to 15. Like the United States, the UK government is also urging senior citizens and other vulnerable people to receive additional doses of vaccines. Some scientists say that’s not enough. They are urging Johnson to resume wearing masks in crowded places, require vaccine passports for major events and advise more work from home.
“We don’t need to see these jumps,” Bruce Aylward, a senior adviser at the World Health Organization, told a news briefing on Thursday. masks.
At the other extreme, Australia is struggling to adhere to a full policy to protect against the virus. Despite the blockade, which has lasted longer than anywhere else in the world, the country now accepts that Covid is there to stay and is adjusting to a steady number of cases, as is New Zealand. Singapore has chosen to reopen and focus on zero cases after its vaccination rate exceeds 80%. But infections began to rise soon after some measures were eased in August. The city-state decided this week to keep restrictions against the virus for another month and warned that the current wave could pose a serious challenge to its healthcare system. In the United States, where more than 40% of the population is not fully vaccinated, there is little reason to believe that the country will be immune to what is happening in the UK and elsewhere as winter continues. To help strengthen the nation’s defenses and prevent another influx of viruses, the US Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved a boosting dose of Moderna Inc. and Johnson & Johnson.
In Europe, countries such as Italy, Germany and France are already trying to follow the middle ground, relying on a combination of vaccines, masks and testing regimens to support their vaccination efforts and avoid more blockages.
The idea is spreading, with Bulgaria, the least vaccinated country in the European Union, imposing its own omission this week. In Italy, where passes are required to enter restaurants, theaters and gyms, Prime Minister Mario Draghi has criticized Britain’s weaker approach, saying the country has “abandoned all caution” and is now facing the consequences.
Europe’s strategy is an “experiment,” said Marion Kupmans, head of the virology department at Erasmus University Medical Center, on the sidelines of a conference last month. In Germany, businesses are increasingly being able to serve only those who have been vaccinated or recovered by Covid, and the famous Berlin techno club Berghain was among those who did so – and yet at least 19 people were infected. party there in early October, the Berliner Morgenpost reported.The cases were minor, but about 3,300 potential close contacts of infected people were informed by email, the newspaper reported.
Trends in the UK and other heavily vaccinated countries, where restrictions have been lifted and people are socializing indoors, show how effective vaccines are for keeping people alive and out of hospital, said Mike Ryan, head of the WHO’s emergency health program, at a briefing. . This will be put to the test this winter as well. “The reality is that in a situation where there is intense social mixing during the winter indoors, we will see further transmission of the virus,” Ryan said.
In Latvia, where about half of the population remains unvaccinated, the government finds itself in an awkward position to deplore the strict restrictions it imposes on the immunized. “I have to apologize to all those who have been vaccinated that all our efforts so far have not been enough,” Prime Minister Crissannis Karins said on Monday. do, we will also suffer. ”
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