MILAN (AP) – The virus has spread to nursery schools and adjacent primary schools in Bolt’s Milan suburb at a surprising pace. In just days, 45 children and 14 staff members tested positive.
Genetic analysis has already confirmed the suspicions to officials: the first known highly contagious coronavirus variant in England was running through the community, a city of about 40,000, with a chemical plant and a Pirelli bicycle tire factory 15 minutes from the heart of Milan.
“It’s a demonstration that viruses have a kind of intelligence. “We can put up all the barriers in the world and imagine that they work, but in the end, it suits and penetrates them,” lamented the mayor of Bolet, Francisco Vasalo.
Bolt was the first city in Lombardy to be the center of evolution in all three of Italy’s creations, to be sealed off from neighbors because of the mutant version, which the World Health Organization says will now lead to another infection-related reform in Europe. The variants include the first versions identified in South Africa and Brazil.
In Europe, 1 million new Covid-19 cases were reported last week, an increase of 9% from the previous week and a reversal that ended a six-week decline, the WHO said on Thursday.
Dr. Hans Kluge, Regional Director of the WHO Europe, said: “Different types of spread are leading to this increase, but it is also the beginning of a society when it is not done in a safe and controlled way.”
The so-called UK type is significantly spread in the 27 European countries monitored by the WHO and dominates at least 10, according to the agency’s calculations: Britain, Denmark, Italy, Ireland, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Israel, Spain and Portugal.
WHO experts warn that it is trans0% more transmissible than the virus that reappeared last spring and fall and again in the fall, making the measures that thwarted it more effective.
“That’s why health systems are struggling more now. It’s really at a tipping point. We have to capture the fort and be very vigilant,” Cluj said.
In Lombardy, Italy, where spring surges are taking place, intensive care wards are being replenished, as two-thirds of the new positive tests are of the UK variety, health officials said this week.
After putting two provinces and several towns0 cities on a revised lockdown, the regional governor of Lombardy on Friday announced a strict ban and closure of classrooms for all age groups. The head of the provincial health system said cases in Milan’s schools alone had risen by 33% in a week.
The situation is that of the Czech Republic, which this week recorded a record break of about 8,500 patients in hospital with COVID-19. Poland is imposing a partial lockdown by opening temporary hospitals as the number of infections has dropped from 10% in February to 25% now.
Cluj cited Britain’s experience as a reason for optimism, saying that better bans and the introduction of vaccines have helped to diversify the variety there and in Israel. Vaccine rollouts in the European Union, by comparison, have lagged behind, largely due to supply problems.
In Britain, drastic cases were sent out in December due to the emergence of more transmissible tensions and a national lockdown began in January. Cases have since dropped from a peak of 60,000 in early January to about 7,000 a day.
However, one study shows that the decline rate is slowing, and the government says it will run cautiously with plans to ease the lockdown. That process begins with schools resuming on Monday. The infection rate is highest among people aged 13 to 17 and officials will take a closer look to see if there is an increase in infections returning to class.
While the UK variant is dominant in France, lockdowns have been forced in the French city of Nice and the northern port of Dunkirk, while the first variant discovered in South Africa has emerged as the most prevalent in the Moselle region bordering Germany and Luxembourg. It represents 55% of the viruses circulating there.
Even in a district of Austria from Italy to Germany, which is dominant in the South African genre, Austrian authorities have announced plans to vaccinate most of the 1,000,000,000 inhabitants to prevent its spread. Drivers are also required on the Brenner Highway, the main north-south route, to bring negative test results to Austria.
The variety of South African currently present in 26 European countries is of particular concern due to doubts as to whether the current vaccines are fully effective against it. The Brazilian variant, which appears to be able to re-enable people, has been found in 15 countries in Europe.
The WHO and its partners are working to strengthen the genetic surveillance needed to track variants across continents.
The mayor of Bolte has appealed to the regional governor to vaccinate all 40,000 residents immediately, although he expects supplies to be tight at the moment.
Bolet has reported 3000 positive cases and 134 deaths since being affected in Italy a year ago – mostly in the elderly. In November and December, in the autumn resurgence, it became aggressive, and was carefully apprehended when variants arrived, run by school-age children before hitting home families.
“People are starting to get tired that after a year there is no light at the end of the tunnel,” Vesalo said.
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AP correspondents contributed to Jill Llessless in London, Karel Janicek in Prague, Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Jamie Ketten in Geneva, Sylvie Corbett in Paris, Gir Moulsen in Berlin and GK in Belgrade.
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Follow the AP epidemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UndersferencestheOutbreak
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