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COVID-19 Europe enters a new phase

Europe's COVID-19 enters a new phase - Photo 1.

People gather to celebrate “King’s Day” in the Jordaan district of Amsterdam, the Netherlands on April 27 – Photo: AFP

On April 27, the EU (including 27 countries) declared an end to the state of emergency due to COVID-19 after the pressure on hospitals had decreased and many member countries lifted epidemic prevention restrictions.

“Sustainable Management”

“We are entering a new phase of the pandemic, when we move from a state of emergency to a more sustainable management of the COVID-19 epidemic,” said European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen.

Over the past two years, COVID-19 has claimed the lives of more than 1 million EU people, overwhelmed the health system, forced many governments to restrict travel, and launched a lot of research and response efforts. need large scale to quickly cover the vaccine.

In a document outlining a new phase of strategy, the EU calls on member states to continue to promote immunization of unvaccinated people, especially children, before the new term in the fall, and to get booster shots.

They urge countries to adopt as soon as possible integrated year-round surveillance systems for acute respiratory diseases (including COVID-19, influenza and others). According to them, it is necessary to step up the surveillance of new variants and prevent re-epidemic outbreaks.

The document also says the EU is “considering supporting projects aimed at developing antiviral drugs” and developing a new generation of vaccines with the hope of providing better and longer-lasting protection.

In the long term, the EC has outlined a number of scenarios for the development of the epidemic. At best, COVID-19 will become manageable, but in a bleak scenario, there will be “unruly winters”, frequently overcrowded hospitals or the emergence of a new variant that may be forced to impose reuse limitations.

Stay alert to COVID-19

However, a “more sustainable” approach to COVID-19 does not mean EU member states let down their guard.

Ursula von der Leyen noted: “We must remain vigilant. The number of infections is still high in the EU and still many people are dying from COVID-19 around the world. Furthermore, new variants may emerge and spread rapidly”.

This statement is similar to the warning issued by the Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on April 26. Tedros urged countries to maintain case surveillance and warned that the reduction in testing could leave the world “blind” to the evolution of the virus and the risk of new variants.

Some EU member states have considered COVID-19 an “endemic disease”. In January, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said COVID-19 should be treated like the flu. Sweden stopped widespread testing and lifted restrictions in February, Italy ended its state of emergency today 31-3.

To date, more than two-thirds of the EU adult population has been vaccinated, but some countries still have low vaccination rates, and their populations are still vulnerable. For example, while 70% of the Maltese population has received booster shots, in Bulgaria it is only 10%.

In addition, Stella Kyriakides (European commissioner in charge of health) said that about 60-80% of the EU population has contracted COVID-19 and about 10% suffers from persistent symptoms. “This needs to be taken very seriously,” Kyriakides told reporters.

The US “escapes the pandemic phase”

Meanwhile, in the US, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the country is “now definitely out of the pandemic phase”.

He said that the US is in a “transition period” when people can resume some social and economic activities … without being disturbed as before.

“The United States no longer records 900,000 new infections every day, tens of thousands of hospitalizations and thousands of deaths,” Fauci explained on PBS radio.

Right now, the numbers are on the low side. So we have come out of the pandemic phase.” But he still urged people to remain vigilant, follow the instructions of the health authorities and get vaccinated.

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