[D66] With a half-million COVID cases daily, WHO warns world is at a critical juncture
R.O.
jugg at ziggo.nl
Sat Oct 24 08:21:32 CEST 2020
wsws.org:
With a half-million COVID cases daily, WHO warns world is at a critical
juncture
Benjamin Mateus
2 hours ago
The fall and winter surge of COVID-19 cases, as predicted, has begun.
The number of cases across North America and Europe is rising
exponentially in some regions.
There have been more than 42.4 million cases of COVID-19 globally, with
1.14 million deaths thus far. On Friday, the number of daily new cases
reached an unprecedented 500,000-plus new infections. Global deaths have
consistently tracked above 6,000 four days running.
At the World Health Organization Friday press briefing on the COVID-19
pandemic, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus ominously warned,
“We are at a critical juncture in this pandemic. Particularly in the
Northern Hemisphere. The next few months will be very tough and some
countries are on a dangerous track. Too many countries are seeing an
exponential increase in cases and that is now leading to hospitals and
ICUs close to or above capacity, and we are still only in October. We
urge leaders to take immediate action to prevent further unnecessary
deaths, essential health services from collapsing and schools shutting
again. As I said it in February and I am repeating it today, ‘This is
not a drill.’” He strongly urged that world leaders could still “turn
this around.”
During the question and answer session, epidemiologist Dr. Maria Van
Kerkhove noted that ICU capacity for many regions might reach their
limits in the next few weeks across Europe and North America. In what
amounted to a plea, she cautioned that countries need to take “an honest
assessment” of the situation immediately, utilizing all the data
available to make “course corrections and necessary changes” to achieve
the goals of reducing transmission and saving lives.
Dr. Mike Ryan reinforced these warnings: “We don’t have to see deaths
track back to the horrific levels they were as a proportion of all cases
as in the springtime. Things have changed, we are better, we are better
now. We must prevent transmission. But we also need to focus on reducing
the toll, which will rise in the coming days, I have no doubt. But we
need to also put more investment in ensuring that our frontline system
does not collapse in the face of an ever-increasing caseload of sick
patients.”
On Thursday, the United States reported 74,301 new cases. This was the
fourth-highest total ever and the highest since July 24 when the number
of daily cases peaked at 79,000. The seven-day moving average death rate
has also edged upwards over 800. More problematic has been the rapid
rise in hospitalized patients, which exceeded 41,000 across the country,
a 33 percent increase in the last three weeks.
In their most recent projections for the US, the Institute for Health
Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), based at Washington State University,
stated that the situation would intensify in November and December
before peaking in January. With current facemask usage at under 50
percent and state governments continuing to remove social distancing
mandates, this will lead to nearly 500,000 preventable deaths by
February 1, IHME said.
Across the Sunbelt states, case counts and deaths are climbing again.
Southern and Midwestern states—Kentucky, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio,
Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming—have reported record high
hospitalizations. Twelve states have seen the highest seven-day average
of new cases, while six—Colorado, Indiana, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma and
Utah—have hit their highest case counts to date.
According to a Coronavirus Task Force report suppressed by the White
House and leaked to CNN, small household gatherings are driving the rise
in cases. With the holiday seasons fast approaching, Centers for Disease
Control Director Dr. Robert Redfield, speaking at a call of the nation’s
governors, said, “We think it’s imperative to stress the vigilance of
these continued mitigation steps in the household setting.”
Almost every local health department across the country—from Vermont to
New Mexico—has been sounding the alarm. A lockdown is in effect at the
Oglala Sioux Tribe’s reservation in South Dakota, where 391 active
COVID-19 cases have been reported among 20,000 residents. Hospitals in
northern Idaho are running out of space for patients and officials have
planned to airlift them to Oregon or Washington. Florida public health
officials have called for the public to stop holding birthday parties
for children. Texas Governor Greg Abbott is redirecting El Paso
resources as 3,750 new infections have afflicted the region this week,
including 1,161 cases just on Thursday.
After a summer of much boasting and misplaced pride, Europe has surged
past North America as the new epicenter of the global pandemic. The
number of new COVID-19 cases is tenfold higher, with over 218,000
infections on Thursday accounting for 45 percent of all new cases worldwide.
Despite ample warnings that if nations did not build up their testing
and contact tracing capacities, create programs to treat and care for
quarantined cases adequately and make hospitals ready with appropriate
material interventions and redundant staffing, the situation could
quickly deteriorate to one in which lockdowns need to be imposed to
bring the pandemic under control. Yet, despite ongoing counseling and
warning, nations eager to get their economies back on firm footing
quickly declared victory and let loose.
France reported over 42,000 cases yesterday, with almost 300 deaths.
Along with Russia and Spain, it is distinguished as a nation with more
than 1 million cases of COVID-19. Estimates indicate that by November
daily cases will double their current levels. Though a curfew has been
placed into effect from 9 p.m. until 6 a.m. for 46 million of France’s
67 million people, businesses and schools remain open. The latest count
indicates 2,139 COVID-19 patients on ventilators, which account for
one-third of the country’s capacity.
The United Kingdom has seen new cases exceed 20,000 for four consecutive
days. Wales imposed a national shutdown on Friday, with stay-at-home
orders for the population and all nonessential businesses, including
pubs, to be shut. North Ireland is closing schools for two weeks with a
review on November 2. Restaurants and cafes will operate on a limited
basis for the next four weeks. Londoners are facing new restrictions again.
Nottingham University Hospital Trust told the BBC that “a full ward of
people” with COVID-19 was being admitted each day. According to their
patient census tracking, the Queen’s Medical Centre and City Hospital
are averaging 14 admissions with seven people on mechanical ventilation
per day.
The Czech Republic has been the hardest hit in the initial throes of the
second wave. The rise in cases is proceeding at an exponential rate,
with new cases reaching 15,000 per day and deaths exceeding over 100.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis addressed the nation from Prague on
Wednesday, saying, “We certainly made mistakes when we thought at the
end of May, when we finished the reopening, that we had managed it.”
Poland saw 13,632 cases and 153 deaths Friday. The government is
converting the National Stadium in Warsaw into a temporary field
hospital to manage patients. The near 60,000 capacity stadium will make
room for more than 500 patients to be equipped with oxygen therapy,
according to Piotr Muller, a government spokesperson. Medical oxygen, an
essential intervention in treating COVID patients, is once again in
critical shortage.
Spain and Italy reported almost 20,000 new cases yesterday. Germany had
13,476 cases; Belgium reported 16,746. Europe accounts for almost
one-third of all coronavirus deaths The Netherlands had nearly 10,000
cases. In the face of this massive surge of infections, the
controversial Swedish state epidemiologist, Dr. Anders Tegnell, told BBC
Radio 4’s “Today” program, “Basically, we mean that we will send a
message to elderly people, you don’t need to isolate anymore completely.”
These developments are a product of abject political failures that have
placed the needs of financial markets above life. Adam Kamradt-Scott, a
global health professor at the University of Sydney, told Vox, “It was
understandable that countries imposed lockdowns in the initial weeks
when countries first got hit and were quickly overwhelmed. But six
months on, countries should have sufficient systems in place to
undertake the necessary contact tracing and have a range of other
measures they can use to limit the spread of the virus, rather than
looking to hard lockdowns as the answer.”
Damiano Sandri, an IMF analyst who has been studying the impact of the
virus on economic activity, noted that economic “damage is also done if
you get a strong wave of infections and people start dying.”
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