WHO Chief: COVID Spread in Europe May Be Easing
By VOA News April 22, 2020
The director-general of the World Health Organization said Wednesday that most coronavirus epidemics in Europe "appear to be stable or declining" but warned "the virus will be with us for a long time."
During his daily COVID-19 briefing in Geneva, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus further cautioned that "most countries are still in the early stages of their epidemics" and that some that were hit early by the pandemic "are now starting to see a resurgence in cases."
Tedros said lockdowns and other "physical distancing measures" had curbed the spread of the virus in many countries and that complacency was now "one of the greatest dangers we face."
He urged countries to adopt public health measures the WHO has been recommending, including identifying, isolating and testing every case and quarantining everyone who has had contact with COVID-19 patients.
Spain looks ahead
Separately, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has targeted the second half of May as his country's "horizon of de-escalation," as his government and others start to plan an exit from strict coronavirus containment measures.
Speaking to parliament Wednesday as he requested an extension of current lockdown orders through May 9, Sanchez said that when Spain does begin to ease restrictions, it will be a "slow and gradual" process.
That would be in line with warnings from public health officials who in recent days have urged governments to be careful when lifting restrictions on businesses and public life, saying that moving too quickly would risk a resurgence of infections.
Spain has been one of the world's hardest-hit countries, with 208,389 confirmed COVID-19 cases and at least 21,717 deaths as of Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University.
A strict lockdown went into effect in mid-March. Some businesses have been allowed to reopen, and after public criticism the government said that starting Sunday, children under age 14 would be allowed to go outside for walks.
With many countries around the world focused on testing programs to find the infected, isolate them and trace their close contacts, there are concerns about areas where widespread testing is not available and where people are living in close quarters.
That includes refugee camps, and on Wednesday the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees reported the first confirmed case in a camp in eastern Lebanon.
UNRWA said the person was a Palestinian from Syria and that she had been taken to a hospital in Beirut. The agency said it was doing everything necessary to aid her family members in isolating themselves, and that it was sending a team to the camp to carry out coronavirus tests.
Governments are also eager to find a vaccine for COVID-19, a milestone that would help prevent future massive outbreaks.
Second-wave warning
Robert Redfield, director of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told The Washington Post on Tuesday that a second wave of infections later this year just as flu season begins "could be even more difficult" and put a massive strain on the health care system.
A COVID-19 death in California in February suggested the coronavirus was claiming lives in the U.S. weeks earlier than the administration previously thought.
The first reported COVID-19 death was on February 26 in Seattle, Washington, but local officials in Santa Clara County, California, reported a death that occurred February 6. The person died nearly three weeks before the reported fatality in Seattle and more than five weeks before U.S. President Donald Trump issued national guidelines suggesting that people stop unnecessary travel and avoid gatherings of more than 10 people.
Trump Wednesday tweeted, "Our Country is starting to OPEN FOR BUSINESS again," although the U.S. leads the world by far in confirmed cases (839,836) and fatalities (46,079), according to Johns Hopkins.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin predicted most U.S. economic sectors would be open again by late summer. Several states have already started to reopen businesses and ease travel restrictions, despite warnings from local elected officials and some health experts that those actions might be premature.
The United States and China are among countries conducting trials of coronavirus vaccines, with officials cautioning it could take until at least early next year before a vaccine is available to the public.
British health officials said the University of Oxford was set to begin testing a vaccine candidate on people on Thursday.
"In normal times, reaching this stage would take a year," Health Secretary Matt Hancock told reporters. He cautioned that vaccine development was a process of "trial and error and trial again."
There were more than 2,622,500 confirmed cases and over 182,300 deaths worldwide as of Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins.
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