A nurse prepares the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Sarcelles, near Paris, on January 10, 2021.
ALAIN JOCARD | AFP | Getty Images
LONDON – As coronavirus vaccines continue to be deployed in the world’s major economies, attention is once again focused on current blocking strategies to try to eliminate any new cases of the virus.
Some experts have called for a “zero-covida” strategy, advocating for closures, social restrictions and very strict travel bans to try to eradicate all cases of the virus before reopening public and business life.
Countries such as New Zealand and Australia opted for this approach, closing their countries at the beginning of the pandemic to prevent new cases. Citing its success in stopping the pandemic, some experts in Ireland also advocate a “zero covid” approach, although there are discrepancies as to whether this policy would work there, given Northern Ireland’s open border with the rest of the world. United Kingdom.
On Thursday, experts from the World Health Organization said it was too early and complicated in practice for Europe to consider a “zero covid” approach.
“Elimination is something we want, in principle, for any disease, for any pathogen, and it can be a very powerful work incentive. But if we are at the moment (to set goals for a strategy” zero Covid “) is still a different ball game,” Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO’s regional director for Europe, told a news conference on Thursday.
“What we need to do first is see how people’s behavior, how they adhere to non-pharmaceutical interventions, add to the timing of policy decisions with the deployment of vaccination and how it will control the pandemic.” “
Zero Covid strategies have relied on a ban on incoming travel, but some countries were easier to restrict or “isolate from international travel” than others, Kluge said. Many European countries have banned all travel except essentials during closure. Mandatory quarantine hotels for travelers in the UK are now on the doorstep, although critics say the step is too small, too late.
The deployment of vaccination provides protection against blockages and, along with restrictions on public life, a slowdown in new cases and hospital admissions is slowly being seen.
Kluge said the European region, which for the WHO comprises 53 countries, has experienced a decline in new cases in the past four weeks and in deaths in the last fortnight. Still, more than a million cases were reported each week in the European region, Kluge said, and the spread of new variants remains a major concern.
Vaccine manufacturers are already working on second-generation features to target virus variants. Concern and caution about mutations keep governments alert when it comes to lifting blockades.
On the one hand, Germany has extended its closure in early March in a context of concern over the spread of a variant first discovered in the UK. According to the WHO, one of the leading British scientists said that this variant was now reported in more than 80 countries. it was in progress “to sweep the world, in all probability.”
The lifting of the blockades “must be done gradually and safely,” Kluge said, adding that “the biggest mistake is to lower the guard (too early).”
Dr Catherine Smallwood, senior emergency officer on the WHO European team, said the virus would be used to ease the restrictions too soon.
“This virus will take any opportunity we give it to spread quickly and spread much faster than we think … Every time we lift a restriction, every time we open a part of our society it will change the balance in favor of the virus “.
He warned that transmission rates remained high and that lowering them would support vaccination programs.