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ROME. Coronavirus cases in Germany have almost doubled in the last 24 hours. According to the Robert Koch Institute, 1,378 new infections and two victims were recorded compared to 782 cases the day before, when no deaths were recorded. Thus, the total number of infections in Germany amounts to 248,997 and the number of deaths to 9,324.
Alarm in the United States
More than 410,000 people in the United States could die from the coronavirus before January 1, more than double the current death toll, according to the model of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (Ihme) of the University of Washington . According to an IHME report, another 224,000 Covid deaths could be accounted for in the US in the next four months, and the death toll could be much more serious if all restrictions are relaxed. “If a strategy of herd immunity is pursued, which means that no further government intervention will be taken between now and January 1, the death toll could rise to 620,000,” the IHME said. The death rate could reach nearly 3,000 a day in December, an unprecedented figure, in part due to “declining public surveillance,” predicts the IHME. For now, the model points to a decrease in the use of masks in some regions from the peak use in early August.
Shock about the timing of the vaccine
Several large pharmaceutical companies developing Covid-19 vaccines plan to sign a public pledge not to seek government approval until the tests are shown to be safe and effective. Among these, reports the Wall Street Journal, which has reviewed a draft of the joint statement, companies such as Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna. An unusual common move among competitors following fears of a rush for mass vaccination.
Quarantine for migrants on Lesbos
The Greek government is imposing a reckless and potentially very dangerous quarantine on migrants and asylum seekers from the Moria camp on the island of Lesbos. A form of mass quarantine that must be avoided at all costs, which highlights the lack of a strategic response to reduce the transmission of the virus in the countryside and protect what remains of people’s dignity, warns Doctors Without Borders (MSF) . If in recent times the number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 has increased among the local population of Lesbos, to date there is only one case among the residents of the Moria camp.
Government duties would require a strengthening of the public health response for migrants and asylum seekers and not their confinement in hellish conditions to claim to protect the island from the spread of the virus. Moria is not a safe place for anyone, but there are more than 200 people who have been identified as at serious risk of contracting Covid-19 by age and health status. For months now, together with other actors on the island, MSF has called for the total evacuation of all the inhabitants of the Moria camp, with the concrete urgency of transferring this group of especially vulnerable people from a medical point of view to safe accommodation in Lesbos or on the mainland, in Greece or within the European Union.
Transfers
In April, the government promised this transfer, but five months later these people are still trapped in Moria and now surrounded by a police cordon. With a confirmed positive case in Moria, it is critical to ensure your transfer to safe accommodation now. Failure to do so would be an obvious abandonment of the duty to care for these people by the Greek authorities. “It appears that local health authorities have started testing the camp residents for Covid-19, but this is a small part of what needs to be done,” said Marco Sandrone, MSF project leader in Lesbos. “An adequate response to public health needs is needed: planning, contact tracing, testing and a serious effort to improve sanitation and access to medical services. There is no justification for a forced mass quarantine and what is worse we know that these measures will worsen the already compromised mental health of our patients. At this time in Moria there are elderly people with health problems, pregnant women and children who are afraid and will be exposed to greater trauma due to this choice. The government must protect these people, but keeping them locked up in the field exposes them to greater risks ”. For Doctors Without Borders, if the Greek government wants to be responsible for its obligation to provide care, it will have to urgently implement all these public health measures or evacuate all the people of Moria to safer places: “The mass quarantine will inevitably cause more suffering without bring no benefit to public health ”.
