Europe tightens epidemic prevention measures

Europe is still the center of the world’s COVID-19 epidemic. The number of new infections continues to rise, causing countries on this continent to tighten epidemic prevention measures.

Europe tightens epidemic prevention measures

On January 12, the Berlin government, Germany issued a ban on leaving the place of residence more than 15 km, except for some force majeure cases such as going to work, going to the doctor, etc., due to the infection index. Infections in 7 days in Berlin exceeded 200 new infections per 100,000 population.
This rule has now been applied in many German states, where the number of new infections exceeds the limit of 200 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in a week. Currently, there are 113/412 districts in Germany with an infection index exceeding 200 new infections, of which many districts exceed 500, especially Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district of Thuringia state has the highest index with the highest number of cases. nearly 600 cases.

Speaking at an internal online meeting of the conservative coalition CDU/CSU, Chancellor Merkel warned that the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic could increase tenfold if Germany could not successfully contain the new variant. of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Ms. Merkel used the development of the disease in Ireland, where the infection index rose from 70 to 700 in a short time, as an example to show the danger of the virus variant detected in the UK. According to Chancellor Angela Merkel, Germany risks facing between 8 and 10 very difficult weeks (until Easter in early April 2021), depending on how quickly the new variant spreads.

The new variant of the virus in the UK is said to have a very high infection rate (70% higher than the original virus). The rapid increase in the number of infections in Ireland is believed to be related to the new variant in the UK. Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin said 41% of visitors from the UK to Ireland over Christmas have tested positive for the new variant.

Swiss authorities announced that they will impose a 10-day quarantine measure for people arriving from Ireland, after the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the number of infections was increasing sharply in the country since 19 h. (Vietnam time) on 12/1.

The epidemic situation in the UK is also very serious when there are 50,000 new infections every day and the infection index is now close to 600, compared with 164.5 in Germany and over 900 in Ireland.

In Europe, Russia is the most severely affected country with 3,448,203 infections, but the UK has recorded the highest number of deaths on the continent (83,203 cases). The UK has the second highest number of infections (more than 3.1 million cases) while Italy has the second highest number of deaths (79,819 cases). France, Italy, and Spain have recorded more than 2.1 million infections while Germany, Poland, and Ukraine all have more than 1.1 million.

Russia has announced an extension of the suspension of flights to and from the UK after the country’s authorities confirmed a new case of infection with a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus first detected in the UK. Russia implemented a measure to suspend air traffic with the UK from the end of December 2020. The new decision extends this measure until February 1, 2021. Moscow said the decision was to prevent the risk of the new variant entering and spreading in the country.

In France, many cities across the country have imposed a new curfew, banning people from going out from 6pm to 6am the next day. This measure comes in the context of the number of infections in France in recent days sometimes reaching more than 20,000 cases per day.

Sweden has long persisted with the strategy of creating “herd immunity”, now this country’s parliament has just approved giving the government the right to consider shutting down the economy on its own.

WHO Europe Regional Director, Mr. Hans Kluge, assessed that the continent faces many challenges as we enter 2021. Just over 10 days from the beginning of the year to date, more than 230 million people in several European countries are currently living. must live in a state of total blockade and the number of countries expected to impose blockade measures continues to increase.

Currently, the infection rate of SARS-CoV-2 virus across Europe is still very high. As of January 6, nearly half of countries and territories in Europe recorded a 7-day rate of new infections at more than 150 cases per 100,000 people, and a quarter of countries and territories are The number of infections has increased by more than 10% in the past 2 weeks. There are 22 countries in Europe that have recorded the appearance of a variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which was detected in the UK and is increasing rapidly in Denmark.

According to Kluge, although it has not made any significant changes to the COVID-19 epidemic, the variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has raised a warning that if countries do not strengthen control, it could have a negative impact. increasingly large impact on the health system – which has to strain itself against the epidemic.

In the context of public concern about the emergence of new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the increasing number of deaths in many areas in Europe, many countries in the “old continent” push strengthen the vaccination program for the people, considering this as one of the effective measures to control the spread of this dangerous virus.