This week, more countries began to gradually relax social controls and began to enter the stage of resuming work and epidemic prevention at the same time, but this is by no means an easy task. In Asia, South Korea, where the first round of anti-epidemic results has been remarkable, has once again seen a cluster of infections. In Europe, there has also been an increase in infection rates in Germany after the deregulation of controls. Some media commented that the world is entering a high-risk experimental period, cities and countries have become open-air laboratories, and the research topic is how to reopen society safely and effectively when the new crown virus may exist for a long time.
On May 8, the opening match of the 2020 Korean Professional Football League K-League, which has been postponed for more than two months due to the new crown epidemic, officially began, and the defending champion Jeonbuk Hyundai sat at home to face Suwon Samsung. But the 42,000-seat Jeonju World Cup arena didn't have a single spectator, just banners with words of support written on it. Players on both sides also stopped shaking hands in a polite manner and instead bowed to each other.
Three days ago, on May 5, South Korea officially ended the 45-day "strict social distancing period" and entered a relatively loose "life epidemic prevention period" with relatively loose control, and parks, sports facilities, art museums, and entertainment venues gradually reopened under the premise of abiding by epidemic prevention rules.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in: We have now transitioned to a new normal in which safety and epidemic prevention measures and daily life will go hand in hand.
On May 6, the first day of the "life epidemic prevention period", the previously closed indoor public facilities were allowed to open to the public, and the Seoul City Library, which has been closed for 71 days, welcomed readers for the first time, and currently accepts 300 online book reservations every day. On the first day of reopening, 300 reservations were filled.
However, the life epidemic prevention period has just begun, and a cluster transmission incident has made the Korean epidemic prevention department nervous. On May 6, a 29-year-old man from Gyeonggi Province was diagnosed with COVID-19. Before the diagnosis, he had traveled to various nightclubs in Itaewon, Seoul, South Korea, and as of noon on May 15, the number of infections associated with the man had reached 153.
Itaewon, a famous business district in Seoul's Yongsan-gu, is also the most famous mansion area north of the Han River, where many chaebols and celebrities live, and Lee Kin-hee, president of the Samsung Group, also owns an apartment in Itaewon.
△ Lee Kin Hee's property
Due to its proximity to the Yongsan base of the US military in South Korea, Itaewon attracted many US soldiers to visit, and gradually developed into a sightseeing area where foreign tourists gathered.
According to South Korea's Asia Daily, since about 5 years ago, Itaewon, which has a strong exotic character, is popular and popular with young people and foreign tourists. In August 2019, Itaewon was still a bustling scene. Today, posters of closed doors and shops for rent can be seen everywhere.
Affected by the cluster infection, on May 9, the Seoul city government urgently issued a "no gathering order", or business closure order, to more than 2,000 nightlife venues in the district, and violators will be fined up to 3 million won.
South Korean media recreated the trajectory of the 29-year-old man who triggered the cluster infection:
On the evening of May 1, the man went to Itaewon in Seoul's Yongsan-gu and entered several nightclubs for several hours until the early hours of May 2, when he did not wear a mask.
On 2 May, he developed symptoms such as fever and diarrhea.
Received the new crown virus test on the 5th,
At 7 a.m. on the 6th, he was confirmed to be infected with the new crown virus.
On the day of the diagnosis, the man said on the social networking site: In the case of the new crown pneumonia epidemic is not over, I traveled around during the small long holiday, and also went to the nightclub, I did not have any room for defense, it was my mistake. At the same time, he stressed that he had not yet developed symptoms of new crown pneumonia at that time and did not know that he had been infected.
Nuhair, a Bangladeshi who lives near Itaewon, happened to pass by in front of a nightclub that night.
Nuhair, a nearby resident: I was here in the early morning of May 2, about 2 o'clock in the morning, I passed by the entrance of the nightclub, and there were many people at that time, probably more than 70% of them did not wear masks. At that time, there were many people outside the nightclub, and everyone should have not come out to relax for a long time, just in time for the 6 consecutive days of public holidays in South Korea.
At present, the confirmed cases of new crown pneumonia related to Itaewon have appeared in Seoul, Gyeonggi Province, Incheon, Chungcheongbuk-do, Busan, Jeju Province, and even caused serious "secondary transmission in the community", and there are constantly family members, friends and colleagues of patients diagnosed with Itaewon nightclubs who have been confirmed to be infected with the new crown virus. There have also been suspected cases of secondary transmission infections in the South Korean military.
Tracing every contact has become a top priority for the epidemic prevention department. In order to obtain the list of people who had visited Itaewon's nightclubs that night, the Seoul Municipal Government, in accordance with the Infectious Disease Prevention Act, obtained a list of 10,905 network users from mainstream Korean mobile communication operators such as SK Telecom, Korea Telecom, and LGU+ from base stations near Itaewon nightclubs between April 24 and May 6.
On May 12, the Seoul metropolitan government announced that it had called or sent text messages to people who had been in the area for more than 30 minutes, asking them to undergo free COVID-19 testing.
Nuhair, a nearby resident: I'm going to go to the test tonight, at the screening center in Yongsan District.
The Itaewon cluster of infections involved many nightclub consumers, including some "gay groups". The epidemic prevention department is worried that some of them may be reluctant to disclose their identities, accept virus testing, and become "silent spreaders".
To this end, the Seoul Metropolitan Government has introduced an anonymous detection method, and the detector only needs to provide a phone number. Hong Seok-chien, a South Korean entertainer who runs a number of restaurants and bars in Itaewon, also issued an appeal on social media: In order not to waste the efforts of the epidemic prevention authorities, medical personnel and all the people, it is time for everyone to show courage to accept testing.
At the same time, the South Korean National Police Agency is also working on a nationwide rapid response system of 8,559 police officers, using credit card usage information, communication base station information and surveillance video to track more than 1,000 people who have not yet been contacted.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: In South Korea, bars and clubs are closed. Because of the confirmed cases, many people are still being tracked. Germany also reported an increase in the number of confirmed cases since the easing of controls.
Germany is another country that has performed well in epidemic prevention and control. In late April, Germany began to take the step of "unblocking", bookstores, florists, fashion stores, automobile industry gradually resumed work, on May 6, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced the next step of "unblocking" measures.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel: We are making bold attempts and believe that according to the existing framework, we have a chance, but I would also like to reiterate that we need people's cooperation more than ever.
According to the new regulations, people can contact with people other than family members, under the premise of meeting conditions such as hygiene and flow restriction, shops can be reopened, hospitals, nursing homes and other institutions can allow designated personnel to visit without confirmed cases, and outdoor group leisure sports activities are allowed.
The federal government also wants states to decide whether to further relax the restrictions according to their own circumstances, but states must ensure that if the number of new infections per 100,000 people exceeds 50 within 7 days, the previous epidemic prevention measures will be restored immediately. On 6 May, the Barberini Museum in Potsdam reopened.
Visitor: It's great to get back to normalcy, culture is part of normal life.
After nearly two months of border controls, Germany also plans to gradually liberalize its land borders with its Central and Western European neighbors. On 15 May, border checks with Luxembourg were lifted, and border controls with France, Switzerland and Austria will remain on until 15 June. With the relaxation of control measures, the epidemic situation in Germany has also seen some reversals.
According to data released by the Robert Koch Institute of the German Agency for Disease Control and Prevention, since May 9, the "actual number of infections" of the new crown virus in Germany has exceeded the threshold of 1 for three consecutive days.
The actual number of infections, referred to as R, represents the ability of the epidemic to spread in the presence of human intervention, and is an important indicator for judging the trend of the epidemic. If the R value is consistently less than 1, the epidemic will gradually disappear under human intervention, and the larger the R value, the more difficult the epidemic is to control.
On May 8, news broke in Coesfeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, that a large slaughterhouse with 1,200 employees, "West Meat", had a cluster of infections, with at least 260 people confirmed to be infected with the new coronavirus as of May 14. Julian, 48, a carpenter from Romania, is now quarantined in a dormitory area of a slaughterhouse.
Carpenter Julian: Locked up like a lion in a cage. Water, food, salami, it's okay now.
According to German media reports, the working environment of the slaughterhouse is difficult to ensure the strict implementation of epidemic prevention measures. Workers are very close to the slaughtering and processing lines, and many are reluctant to wear masks in order to breathe smoothly due to physical exertion. Coupled with the need to keep the meat processing plant low and humid, the new crown virus is also easy to survive and spread in this environment.
Outside the gates of the West Meat Slaughterhouse, some people protested and demonstrated, believing that the tragedy had already been a precursor. Many of the infected are Eastern European workers working for subcontractors, from countries such as Romania, Bulgaria and Poland, where subcontractors provide them with dormitories and shuttles in Germany.
The Greens' representative in Kosfeld, Sbarick: The West Meat Slaughterhouse violates occupational health and safety regulations and does not comply with social distancing regulations. Migrant workers came here by shuttle bus and lived in dormitories. If a person is infected with the new crown virus, then basically the people who take the same shuttle bus and the people who live in the same dormitory will be infected.
These migrant workers are under employment contracts with subcontractors, that is, they are not direct employees of the Western Meat Slaughterhouse, and the German media is worried about whether their rights and interests will be protected during the quarantine. At present, the government of North Rhine-Westphalia, where Kosfeld is located, has ordered that all about 20,000 workers in the meat industry in the state be tested for the new crown virus, and postponed the reopening of bars and restaurants for another week.
Willer, director of the Robert Koch Institute: This is a pandemic disease, and in a pandemic disease the virus continues to spread. Until 60 or 70 percent of the population is infected, that's why we're almost certain of a second pandemic, and many scientists believe there will be a third wave.
On May 11, the "COVID-19 Treatment Center", which was converted from the Berlin Exhibition Center, was officially opened. Currently equipped with 500 beds, which can be rapidly expanded to 1,000 if needed, the centre will be mainly used to receive mild patients so that other hospitals in Berlin can focus on treating seriously ill patients. On the same day, the German government also announced that it will add an additional 750 million euros to expand the research and development and production of the new crown virus vaccine.
On May 13, Merkel once again stressed that the restart must be slow.
In Europe, the Uk has also begun to restart work. According to the data released by the British Ministry of Health, as of May 15, the cumulative number of confirmed cases of new crown pneumonia in the United Kingdom 236711, and the number of deaths was 33,998, the highest number of deaths in Europe and only less than in the United States worldwide.
But on 10 May, the UK government has lowered England's epidemic prevention level from the highest level of 5 to 4.
On the afternoon of May 11, Prime Minister Johnson announced the details of the partial unsealing in Parliament.
British Prime Minister Johnson: The challenge now is how to find a way forward. It can not only preserve the hard-won achievements in epidemic prevention, but also reduce the economic burden caused by the lockdown.
Britain's anti-epidemic slogan has also been changed from "Stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives" to "Stay vigilant, control the virus, save lives". One of the most obvious changes is that "stay at home" has been removed.
British Prime Minister Johnson: We ask the people to remain vigilant, control the virus, and save lives.
The British media compared the epidemic prevention recommendations made by various regions in the UK.
England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland go out to exercise, more than once a day. Wear masks in crowded areas on reopening dates and conduct limited social activities in open spaces to encourage business restarts.
In contrast, England has been the most radical in its approach to deregulation.
Welsh people: Strict control is definitely a good thing, England should not relax restrictions.
The UK government said the decision to resume work was based on the actual number of infections of the virus. At present, the actual number of new coronavirus infections in the UK is between 0.5 and 0.9, which is lower than 1, and as the R value continues to decrease, more social activities will be restarted in stages.
According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on May 14, excluding hospitals and nursing homes, about 1 in every 400 people in the UK is currently infected with the new crown virus. Therefore, while restarting social life, the British government also recommends that people wear masks in closed spaces such as buses and subways to protect themselves.
But according to the Associated Press, on May 13, at London's Stratford station during peak hour, many people who got off the bus still did not wear masks, and as the flow of people returned to work increased, it became difficult to maintain a social distance of 2 meters.
On May 11, Valens, the chief scientific adviser of the British government, said that according to a sample survey, about 10% of the population in London already has antibodies to the new crown virus, and the proportion of people with antibodies nationwide is only 4%.
Many scholars predict that the development of the new crown pneumonia epidemic may show a waveform trend, with multiple peaks and troughs, which means that epidemic prevention will be a protracted battle.
WHO also warned this week not to try to predict how long the COVID-19 pandemic will continue, which could become a long-term problem and could become an epidemic virus that will never disappear.
(Edited by Wang Xiaohui)