CDC: Finally, strict lockdowns are no longer a tool to curb the coronavirus

by

Strict lockdowns are no longer the best way to curb COVID-19, Africa’s top health official said today, praising South Africa for its approach to dealing with the recent wave of varicose infections caused there. Homicron of the new coronavirus.

“We are very encouraged by what we have seen during this period in South Africa, where they are looking at data on the severity (of infections),” said John Nengasong, director of the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Diseases (Africa CDC), in a press conference he gave.

“The era of strictly locking down as a tool (against COVID-19) is over. What we really need to look at now is how to use the public health system and social measures more carefully and in a balanced way as the vaccination “against COVID-19, he added.

South Africa has seen a sharp rise in new coronavirus cases since late November, around the time it alerted people to the Omicron variant, with the number of new cases peaking in mid-December in record time.

However, new cases have since declined and the government has not resorted to as severely restrictive measures as it did during previous waves of the epidemic, due to the first indications that most of the Omicron cases were mild. Before New Year’s Eve, he even relaxed the regulations.

Nengasong added that he feared that COVID-19 could become endemic on the continent due to the slow pace of vaccinations – a prospect that many global scientists speak of as a given.

“If (…) by the end of this year the continent does not increase its vaccinations to over 70% or 80%, my concern is that we may (…) face a scenario in which COVID becomes endemic “, write down.

Experts believe that COVID-19 cannot be eradicated and will probably become endemic, which means that it will always be present in the population to some degree, such as the flu or chickenpox.

Less than 10% of Africa’s population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the latest Africa CDC figures, with many countries struggling to gain access to adequate vaccine doses and then struggling to achieve them. to grant them.

In Africa there has been an average increase of 36% in new cases in the last 4 weeks and an average increase of 8% in new deaths from COVID-19.

Follow Skai.gr on Google News
and be the first to know all the news

.

You May Also Like

Recommended for you