WHO advises: do not rush to lift coronavirus measures

The World Health Organization urges not to rush to lift sanitary restrictions – in a number of European countries it has turned into an increase in the incidence of COVID-19. And what about the fourth vaccination?

Over the past week, according to the organization, more than 5 million new cases of infection and more than 12,000 deaths from coronavirus complications have been detected in European countries. The head of the WHO European Office, Hans Kluge, speaks of disturbing trends and the haste to abandon anti-coronavirus measures in Germany, Italy, France, Greece and the UK. euronews.

WHO is calling for a review of government policy to combat coronavirus infection. Kluge offers 4 steps that together will help to achieve the end of the pandemic:

1. protect the most vulnerable, in particular older people, from infection;
2. strengthen the epidemiological surveillance system and improve the detection of new strains of the virus;
3. actively introduce the latest antiviral drugs;
4. address the problem of “protracted covid”, the symptoms of which can persist for more than three months.

An increase in the incidence is also observed in China, despite the persistence of economic-damaging restrictions. The government of the country declares the most serious outbreak of the epidemic since 2020. On Tuesday, China announced a quarantine with a travel ban in one of the largest metropolitan areas in the northeastern region of Shenyang, with a population of more than 9 million people.

Greece is also concerned about the situation with the coronavirus. And while vaccinating a significant portion of the population may have protected citizens from serious illness and reduced the burden on the national healthcare system, Omicron 2 is spreading rapidly. Experts are concerned that we have more than 20,000 cases every day. They urge people to learn to live with this new reality around, to be careful, follow the measures, wear masks.

Although Omicron 2 is usually mild, especially in young and healthy people, it can lead to hospitalization of unvaccinated people, especially the elderly. The increase in the number of repeated infections is also frightening, many fall ill for the second time. Since the beginning of 2022, according to ΕΟΔΥ, almost 90 thousand cases associated with reinfection have been registered in our country.

Sotiris Tsiodras, Professor of Infectious Diseases and Head of the Scientific Committee for Pandemic Management in our country, has been particularly cautious about canceling the vaccination certificate. He emphasized that it is impossible to make accurate forecasts regarding the development of the pandemic, which means that we cannot now know when the certificates will be canceled:

“The epidemiological data will be the catalyst for the lifting of measures in the future, as well as the cancellation of vaccination certificates.”

Arrived in Greece yesterday Pfizer tabletstheir application will begin within a week. Merck tablets are already being applied, and experts say the results are very good.

Pfizer’s pills, approved in January by the European Medicines Agency, are for patients who are at risk of developing severe Covid-19 but are not so severely ill as to require oxygen support. Treatment reduces the risk of hospitalization and death by 90% in vulnerable patients if administered within 5 days of symptom onset. They contain two active ingredients and are taken every 12 hours for five days.

The National Vaccination Commission has opened a discussion about the 4th dose, but there is still insufficient data in Greece. Decisions will be made within the next two weeks. newsbeast.gr.

According to Tsiodras, it is possible that the new mutation could originate from Ukraine – the humanitarian crisis erupting there could affect the pandemic:

“Africa has been the birthplace of new strains. Vaccination status and dispersion in the population is very important for new variants to emerge.”

It should be noted that in Ukraine only 34.5% of the country’s citizens are fully vaccinated.

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