“Covid-19 has brought to light the weaknesses and strengths of European society. It has bluntly revealed the reality of our health systems.” Kluge also said that the pandemic had disrupted services for noncommunicable diseases, including monitoring for diabetes, hypertension and cancer screening in 68 percent of member states. The 53 members of the WHO in Europe began a two-day online meeting on Monday that focused on their response to the virus, as the global death toll surpassed 925,000. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the meeting via video link: “We are by no means out of the woods.” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, seeing how the cases were increasing, echoed the words of the WHO chief exactly and called for vigilance. In France, the cities of Marseille and Bordeaux announced a series of measures to limit public gatherings as Covid-19 infections increase.
Millions back to school
The latest increase has caused alarm across Europe and has reignited the debate on how best to combat rising infections. England has limited social gatherings to no more than six people since Monday. On the other hand, millions of schoolchildren in other affected countries have returned to their classrooms for the first time in months. Italian children were among the first in Europe to see their schools closed, with about 5.6 million returning for the first time in six months on Monday. Although officials said thousands of additional classrooms had been established, there were concerns about a lack of surgical masks for teachers and a shortage of single-seat benches.
Some regions of southern Italy postponed their reopening for fear of not being properly prepared. Meanwhile, a Vatican spokesman said Pope Francis was being “constantly monitored” after meeting with a cardinal who later tested positive. As Europe battles rising infections, other parts of the world are tentatively easing restrictions. Saudi Arabia announced that it would partially lift a six-month suspension of international flights this week. South Korea said it would relax the rules in and around Seoul after the cases dropped.
The United States softened its warning against travel to China, acknowledging that the nation had made progress against Covid-19 despite frequent criticism from Washington about its pandemic role.
Vaccine trials resume
There was also good news in Britain, where regulators allowed clinical trials with one of the most advanced experimental vaccines to resume. The need for a vaccine was underscored by a study by the country’s Institute for Labor Studies showing how the coronavirus may cost a million jobs in Britain this year. Researchers from the joint AstraZeneca-Oxford University project, who hope to finish the tests before the end of the year, had “voluntarily stopped” the trial after a UK volunteer developed an unexplained illness. However, the WHO’s Kluge urged the public not to pin all their hopes on just one drug.
“I heard all the time: ‘the vaccine is going to be the end of the pandemic.’ Of course not,” he said. The end of the pandemic would come when communities learn to live with the disease, he emphasized. And if that wasn’t difficult enough, the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board cautioned that very little is being done to prepare for future, possibly even more damaging pandemics. The independent body created by the WHO and the World Bank, denounced that the crisis had revealed how little the world had focused on preparing for such disasters, despite extensive warnings. France on Monday canceled the largest contemporary art fair in Paris, FIAC, the largest contemporary art fair in Paris, to be held late next month, due to the pandemic.
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