Europe, North America should learn from Asia
Says WHO as Covid-19 restrictions spread in Europe
Europe and North America should follow the example of Asian states by persevering with anti-Covid measures and quarantining anyone who comes into contact with infected people, WHO said as a second wave of virus continued to force new restrictions in Europe yesterday.
The coronavirus has killed at least 1,119,590 people since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT yesterday. At least 40,416,800 cases of coronavirus have been registered. Of these, at least 27,791,000 are now considered recovered.
On Monday, 4,523 new deaths and 367,553 new cases were recorded worldwide. Based on latest reports, the countries with the most new deaths were India with 587 new deaths, followed by Argentina with 449 and United States with 420.
The WHO's Europe region, which includes Russia, has recorded up to 8,500 deaths in the past week - and half the countries have seen a 50 percent rise in cases, Mike Ryan, the body's top emergency expert, told a news conference on Monday.
Over recent months, authorities in Australia, China, Japan and South Korea had reduced the spread by detecting cases, isolating them and quarantining contacts, he said.
Their populations had shown "higher levels of trust" in their governments who had kept up measures longer.
"In other words, they ran through the finish line and beyond and they kept running, because they knew the race wasn't over, that finish line was false. Too many countries have put an imaginary finishing line and when they cross this may have decelerated some of their activities," Ryan said.
"The countries in Asia, south Asia, the Western Pacific that have been successful to my mind have really continued to follow-through on those key activities," he added.
With Ecuador and Uruguay on Monday joined the Covax facility, which aims to finance Covid-19 vaccines to be distributed fairly to both rich and poor countries, pushing the number of countries to 184, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
MORE RESTRICTIONS IN EUROPE
In Europe, Ireland and Wales became the first countries on the continent, where death toll crossed 250,000 on Sunday, to re-enter lockdown yesterday.
Irish prime minister Micheal Martin issued a nationwide "stay at home" order from midnight today, with all non-essential retail businesses to close and bars and restaurants limited to takeaway service only, although schools will remain open.
Wales also announced "firebreak" confinement measures for two weeks, ordering the territory's three million residents to stay at home except for very limited purposes such as exercise or work, and banning people from mixing indoors or outdoors.
Belgium -- where hospitalisations rose 100 percent in just the last week -- closed bars and restaurants on Monday for a month and reinforced a curfew overnight.
Italy, the initial epicentre of Europe's outbreak, also announced fresh curbs including earlier closures for bars and restaurants and a push to increase working from home.
A host of countries including Poland, Switzerland, France, England, Slovenia have introduced tough restrictions ranging from early business closures to curfews.
Iran, the Middle East country hardest hit by the pandemic, announced a daily record of 337 deaths from coronavirus.
In Latin America, Argentina passed the grim milestone of one million cases on Monday, with areas outside the capital Buenos Aires bearing the brunt of recent infections.
India yesterday posted its lowest daily coronavirus caseload in nearly three months, data from the health ministry showed, as new cases maintained decreasing trend from a peak in September.
The country reported 46,790 new infections in the last 24 hours, taking its tally to nearly 7.6 million - the second highest behind the United States.
VACCINE 'HESITANCY'
Scientists yesterday called for urgent action to improve public trust in immunisation as a research suggested that a sizeable population in some nations may be reluctant to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
In a new study published in Nature Medicine, researchers in Spain, the US and Britain surveyed 13,400 people in 19 countries and found that while 72 percent said they would be immunised, 14 percent would refuse and another 14 percent would hesitate.