The world revisits the Omicron threat, with the WHO calling Europe's 2 million death toll a "devastating milestone"

Source: Global Times

As more and more countries decided to "coexist with the new crown virus", a set of figures sounded the alarm bell for the world: on May 12, the number of new crown deaths in the United States reached 1 million, of which 200,000 were infected and died after the epidemic of the Omikejong mutant strain; on the same day, the WHO Regional Office for Europe announced that the number of new crown deaths in its jurisdiction exceeded 2 million, calling it "a devastating milestone". In Africa, the new Ami kerong variant has led to a surge in multi-country cases. These figures have forced countries that are "lying flat" to re-examine the enormous threat of the Aomi Kerong mutation. All along, the general policy of "lying flat against the epidemic" in Europe and the United States and China's "dynamic zero clearance" have been compared by all parties. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on the 13th that although any prevention and control measures will inevitably have a certain impact on the economy and society, these costs are worthwhile and temporary compared to priceless and irreparable lives. "Only by curbing the momentum of the spread of the epidemic as soon as possible can we ensure the sustained and healthy development of the economy."

The U.S. single-day increase again exceeded 100,000

"The United States became the first country in the world to have more than 1 million COVID-19 deaths." Deutsche Welle reported. US President Joe Biden issued a statement on the 12th that 1 million Americans died of the new crown virus, which is an "irreplaceable loss" and that "as a country, we must not be numb to this sadness." We must remain vigilant against the epidemic and do everything possible to save as many lives as possible. He ordered flags to be lowered at half-mast across the United States to commemorate this "tragic milestone."

After experiencing a surge in deaths earlier this year, the number of daily COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. has slowed in recent months, with a moving average of about 320 people per day in the past seven days, down from more than 3,000 a day in February, according to NPR. "But new cases and hospitalizations have accelerated again, many of which are associated with the rapidly spreading sub-variant of Omikejong BA.2.12.1, which now accounts for more than one-third of new infections."

Biden issued a statement on the 12th announcing that 1 million Americans have died of new crown pneumonia, and the flags in the United States have been lowered to half-mast in mourning.

According to the statistics of the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) on the 12th, the United States reported nearly 140,000 new confirmed cases of new coronary pneumonia the day before, which is the number of more than 100,000 for three consecutive days, an increase of about 58% over two weeks ago. The last time the number of new confirmed cases in the United States exceeded 100,000 in a single day was in mid-February this year. Even so, many U.S. media outlets believe that the official number of new cases is unreliable. Axios News Network said that with the closure of public testing facilities, more and more Americans choose to do their own tests at home, but not all of them will report their positive results. Medical experts in the San Francisco area say more reliable data from wastewater testing suggest that the number of new coronavirus infections in the area may have doubled in the past two weeks.

The epidemic situation in Europe is also not optimistic. The WHO European Regional Office issued a statement on the 12th, saying that Europe has long been the hardest hit area of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, and the number of deaths has exceeded 2.002 million. "Although this figure is devastating, it represents only a fraction of the total number of deaths directly or indirectly from COVID-19." The WHO European Region has a total of 53 countries and territories, including several countries in central Asia.

According to the German news agency, German Prime Minister Scholz said on the 12th that in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, many people are now "tired" of the news of the new crown epidemic. But the reality is that the pandemic is not over yet. Globally, he said, more than 6.2 million people have died from COVID-19. The current outbreak and the worrisome Opichron variant highlight the risk of a pandemic continuing.

The United States jointly held the second global anti-epidemic video summit with individual countries on the 12th. The New York Times called "China's conspicuous absence." Zhao Lijian said on the 13th that China welcomes all efforts that will help the international community to unite against the epidemic and fight the epidemic scientifically, but we oppose any country's political manipulation by means of anti-epidemic. Because the US side disregarded China's solemn position and violated the consensus of the international community on the one-China principle, it insisted on inviting the Taiwan side to attend the meeting, and The Chinese side was unable to attend the summit.

More contagious strains spread to many countries

Meanwhile, the new subtypes OF BA.4 and BA.5 of the Aumechjong strain have spread to more than a dozen countries in the United States, Europe and Africa. WHO's technical head of the new crown epidemic, VanKelhof, said on the 12th that BA.4 has spread to at least 16 countries, with a cumulative confirmed case of nearly 700 cases; BA.5 has appeared in at least 17 countries, with a cumulative total of more than 300 confirmed cases. Although the two variants have a lower risk of severe illness than the original strains, they appear to be more contagious, she said. CNBC reported that the number of people infected with BA.4 and BA.5 is not large, but "obvious geographical transmission (trend) shows that these variants have spread successfully."

Salam, emergency head of the WHO Regional Office for Africa, held an online press conference on the 12th to confirm that due to the rapid spread of BA.4 and BA.5 and the relaxation of prevention and control measures in many African countries, the southern African region has recently rebounded from the epidemic. In the week ending 8 May, there were about 46,000 new confirmed covid-19 cases in the region, a 32% increase from the previous week. Among them, the number of new infections in South Africa in a single week has increased threefold in the past 3 weeks, and the number of new infections in Namibia and Eswatini has also rebounded. South African health expert Ossel Mahmoud said the new variant spreads faster than O'Mikron, and coupled with the fact that the southern hemisphere is about to enter winter, he called on the health system to be "ready for a high number of infections".

Data released by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases of South Africa on May 13 showed that in the past 24 hours, there were 8,920 new confirmed cases of new coronavirus in South Africa, and the number of the previous day exceeded 10,000, and the number of new cases in a single day hit a new high this year. Over the past week, the country's nucleic acid positivity rates have been between 25% and 31%. While South Africa's health ministry cautioned on Tuesday that it would remain to be seen whether to declare the country into a fifth wave of the outbreak, experts appeared to disagree. De Oliveira, director of the South African Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation (CERI), warned on his Twitter post as early as April 28 that "the fifth wave (of the outbreak) has arrived". He is best known for discovering beta and Amiqueron variants of the coronavirus.

Low vaccination rates remain a short board for epidemic prevention in Africa. The New York Times said on the 13th that less than 20% of the total population in Africa has been completely vaccinated against the new crown, and the reasons behind it are very complicated. "African countries have waited for a COVID-19 vaccine after a long wait, but demand has declined." In November last year, a South African company signed a contract with Johnson & Johnson to produce vaccines in South Africa, becoming the first factory in Africa to be approved to produce COVID-19 vaccines for the local market. But 6 months have passed and the plant has not yet received an order.

The overall epidemic situation in China continues to show a downward trend

At the same time, the epidemic situation in China is further improving. Lei Zhenglong, deputy director of the Disease Control Bureau of the National Health Commission, said at a press conference of the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council on the 13th that recently, the overall epidemic situation in the country has continued to show a downward trend. Since May 5, the number of new indigenous infections nationwide has been less than 5,000 per day, and on May 12, the number of new indigenous infections in the country has dropped to less than 2,300. At present, the overall epidemic situation in Shanghai is good, and the number of new infections in the city has shown a steady downward trend; the epidemic situation in Jilin Province is in the tail stage, and the number of new infected people in Beijing has decreased in recent days. He said that the current global epidemic situation is still at a high level, the virus is still mutating, there is still great uncertainty about the final direction of the epidemic, and the mainland will continue to face huge pressure from external prevention of import and internal prevention of rebound.

At the press conference on the same day, Wang Huaqing, chief expert of the immunization program of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, introduced that the difference in protective effect between unvaccinated and two doses and three doses is very obvious, and the effect of two doses and three doses of vaccination on the prevention of severe disease and death is also obvious. Generally speaking, the difference is mainly reflected in two aspects: one is the change in antibody levels; the other is the difference in incidence, severe disease rate and case fatality rate.

In the face of the Omicron outbreak, do the past community prevention and control standards still apply? Wu Hao, head of the community prevention and control expert group of the National Health Commission in response to the new crown pneumonia epidemic and dean of the College of General Medicine and Continuing Education of Capital Medical University, introduced that the epidemic in Omikerong is different from the characteristics of previous epidemics, especially in the characteristics of fast transmission speed, short incubation period and strong concealment. In the past, according to the needs of epidemic prevention and control, we used the epidemic information of the "three public linkage" to divide the sealing and control area, the control area and the prevention area, and adopted different control measures for the three areas, which is also an accurate requirement.

"Shanghai's lockdown is coming to an end", Bloomberg quoted Shanghai officials as saying on the 13th, the city is seeking to achieve social clearance by the middle of this month, that is, to cut off the spread of the new crown virus at the social level.

North Korea's report of confirmed COVID-19 cases has raised concerns. At the regular press conference of the Chinese Foreign Ministry on the 13th, a reporter raised the epidemic situation in North Korea and the health problems of Chinese citizens in north Korea. Zhao Lijian said that epidemic prevention work is a common issue facing all mankind. China and the DPRK have a fine tradition of watching out for each other and helping each other. China is willing to work with the DPRK to support each other and strengthen cooperation in the fight against the epidemic. The Chinese government attaches great importance to the safety and health of Chinese citizens in the DPRK. We will pay close attention to the development of the epidemic situation in the DPRK, maintain communication with the DPRK side, and safeguard the lives and health of Chinese citizens in the DPRK.

[Global Times special correspondent in South Africa, Germany, South Korea Xu Li Zhaodong Zhang Jing Global Times reporter Mang Jiuchen]

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