Europe has now become the new epicentre for the ongoing Covid-19, the World Health Organisation declared on Friday.
As of Friday, new confirmed cases in China where the disease originated from in December has dropped as low index cases. Unfortunately, the disease has spread across the world, having been reported in every continent except Antarctica.
As at the time of reporting, cases in China have slowed down while the deadly coronavirus runs through Italy and other European countries.
The virus which emerged from Wuhan, China, less than three months ago, has infected more than 132,000 people across 123 countries and territories with over 5,000 people dead.
The ongoing Covid-19 outbreak was declared pandemic on Wednesday, due to the wild spread and severity of the disease. Also, WHO officials had blamed the inaction of many political leaders for not containing the spread of the virus.
WHO Director-General, Tedros Ghebreyesus, said the inaction of many governments and lack of political will had led to the spread of the disease.
Europe
Mr Ghebreyesus said at a news conference in Geneva that “more cases are now being reported [in Europe] every day than were reported in China at the height of its epidemic.”
Although cases in China is on a decline “there’s always a chance” that could rise again.
However cases in Europe have exploded overnight.
In Europe, as of Saturday 07:15 GMT, Italy currently has the most cases outside of China with at least 17, 660 infections, followed by Spain at 5,232, Germany at 3,675 and France at 3,661, according to data compiled by worldometer.
The outbreak is also soaring in other European countries.
Switzerland currently has 1,139 cases, followed by Norway at 996, Sweden at 814, the Netherlands at 804, Denmark at 804, UK at 798 and Belgium at 559 cases.
Reuters had reported that the German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Wednesday, said when the virus is out there, the population has no immunity and no therapy exists, then 60 per cent to 70 per cent of the population will be infected. ”
U.S
The United States had at least 2,329 cases as of Saturday morning.
Meanwhile, the President of the United States, Donald Trump declared a national emergency on Friday in a bid to contain the spread of the virus in the country
This move has been said to be the most significant move yet by the government to head off the coronavirus outbreak since importation of the disease in the country. Mr Trump had earlier banned travel from 26 countries from Europe and will be in effect for the next 30 days. The ban excluded U.K and Ireland though cases are being reported in UK (798 cases reported so far).
Also, House Democrats and the White House later reached a deal on an aid package.
Not all bad news
While new confirmed cases are reported, it is not all bad news as some people have been treated and recovered from the disease. Though there is no sure treatment protocol- as research on the disease is vigorously ongoing – many countries have been employing various treatments techniques and some seem to be working.
As of Saturday, active cases reported across all reporting countries was 67, 712 cases, those in mild condition at 61,630 and those serious or critical at 6,082 cases.
So far of the treated cases, 72, 550 people fully recovered and discharged.
Containment
So far, there has been no vaccine for the disease and many researches are still ongoing on Covid-19.
However, Mr Ghebreyesus said countries need to take a comprehensive approach to try to fight the pandemic.
He said “not testing alone, not contact tracing alone, not quarantine alone, not social distancing alone, do it all,”
“Any country that looks at the experience of other countries with large epidemics and thinks that won’t happen to us is making a deadly mistake, it can happen to any country,” he said.
Meanwhile, WHO executive director, health emergencies, Mike Ryan, said social distancing only slightly “slows down the virus so your health system can cope,”
“The virus will always get you if you don’t move quickly,” he explained while discussing some of the lessons health officials learned from the Ebola outbreak. (AFP)
