RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – End of the pandemic or a new way of life? For now, it is difficult to determine; what is certain is that the world has shown a great improvement and consolidation in the huge fight against Covid-19.
Thanks to the marked drop in the number of infections and deaths due to Coronavirus, Brazil and Paraguay ended the SARS-CoV-2 health emergency and eliminated the compulsory use of masks, although not all their populations have been fully vaccinated.
BRAZIL
The Minister of Health of the Amazonian country, Marcelo Queiroga, expressed in a press conference at midday on Tuesday, April 19, that “thanks to the improvement of the epidemiological scenario, the wide vaccination coverage of the population and the assistance capacity of the public health system, we are in a position to announce the end of the public health emergency”.
Before the joy of expressing the great step in the fight against the Coronavirus, the public official emphasized that the measure did not mean the end of the pandemic and recommended the population remains alert.
PARAGUAY
The Paraguayan government spokesman, Guillermo Sequera, notified that the decision is due to the improved epidemiological situation that the country has been experiencing for eleven weeks, with a decrease in the number of positive cases, deaths, and people hospitalized in intensive care due to the disease. However, the recommendation to wear a face mask in enclosed places, public transportation, schools, and hospitals is maintained.
FROM PANDEMIC TO ENDEMIC?
Because of the announcements made by Brazil and Paraguay, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, stressed the thesis that there is still a significant risk of regression. “This is everyone’s question. My answer is equally simple: the pandemic will end when the world decides to end it. It is in our hands.”
Adhanom Ghebreyesus detailed the phases that will continue the pandemic’s path. “Four possible scenarios were put forward at the American Society of Medicine. Eradication would be almost unlikely because of the number of cases we have. Elimination could eventually be achieved, but it depends on the aggressiveness and completeness of vaccination, including whether periodic boosters are going to be given.”
Different specialists agree that cohabitation with the virus is imminent, and it will become an endemic disease where the severity will gradually decrease, or it will be exhausted, but this implies vaccinating and revaccinating over time, increasing the coverage of vaccines to cover different variants, according to the official mainstream narrative.
With information from Publimetro