Views: 0 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2022-04-10 Origin: Site
After some European countries successively lifted epidemic prevention restrictions, the number of new crown infections in these countries has surged. The WHO blamed the premature lifting of containment measures and said it may also be linked to the new, more contagious Omicron BA.2 subvariant.
According to the British "Guardian" report on March 22, Hans Kluge, head of the European region of the World Health Organization, said that countries such as Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom have "brutally" lifted epidemic prevention restrictions. He said infection rates were rising in 18 of the 53 countries in the region. Kruger noted that over the past seven days, 12,496 deaths have been reported in the European region. More than 5.1 million new cases are usually associated with the BA.2 subvariant, which experts believe is 30 percent more contagious than the previous BA.1 subvariant.
Germany lifted most of its coronavirus restrictions on March 20. But a day earlier, Germany's seven-day average of new cases per million people reached
2,619, the highest since the pandemic began more than two years ago. France began lifting most epidemic prevention restrictions on the 14th, canceling vaccine passes, and no longer mandating the wearing of masks indoors in schools and many public places. But at this stage, France's daily average infection cases per million population has soared from 774 on the 5th to 1,331. Italy's seven-day average of new cases has also nearly doubled since early March to 1,156 cases per million inhabitants, after earlier announcing it would lift a series of restrictions in the future.
According to the "Parisian" report on the 3rd, on the 2nd local time, there were 132,114 newly diagnosed patients in France in a single day, while the daily increase on March 26 was 139,517 cases, a drop of 5.3% within a week. This is the first time since March 4 that the daily increase in confirmed cases has fallen compared to the same day in the previous week. On the 3rd, there were 102,266 newly diagnosed patients in France in a single day, and the daily increase on March 27 was 110,174, showing a continuing downward trend.
This decline is in line with the epidemic curve observed over the past few days, with a decreasing percentage of new cases rising over the course of the week. In the past week, the average daily increase of infections in France was 139,455, an increase of 13% in a week, but this increase has gradually declined. If the daily increase in cases shows a decreasing trend for several consecutive days, it can be considered that the French epidemic has reached its peak.
Not only in France, but in most European countries, the rebound of the epidemic since the beginning of March seems to have reached its peak. The number of daily cases in Belgium continues to rise, but the growth rate is getting slower and slower, and some countries have adjusted their epidemic surveillance and screening strategies accordingly.
Still, Krueger remained "optimistic but wary" about the progress of the outbreak in Europe. He said that despite the rise in new infections, Europe was in a relatively good position to deal with the virus, with many people already having immunity, "either due to vaccination or antibodies from infection with Covid-19." Kruger believes the end of winter means people are less likely to congregate in "small, crowded places".
But that doesn't mean we can't escape this pandemic, Kruger said. To emerge from the pandemic, countries must protect vulnerable groups, strengthen surveillance and genetic sequencing, and ensure vulnerable groups have access to new antiviral drugs, he said.
