European countries have been very quick to lift anti-Corona measures

The mutant Omicron raises the number of injuries (Fabrice Cofferini/AFP)

announced World Health OrganizationSeveral European countries, including Germany, France, Italy and Britain, “suddenly” lifted measures Fighting COVID-19 It finds itself once more facing a clear increase in the number of infections due to the impact of the second edition of the mutant omicron It is called BA.2.

The Director of the European branch of the World Health Organization, Hans Kluge, said in a press conference held in Moldova that he is “vigilant” to the current epidemiological situation on the continent, stressing that he remains “optimistic.”

Changing the “zero covid” strategy

On the other hand, senior Hong Kong scholars urged the government on Tuesday to change its strategy.zero covid‘ adopted by China before the next wave of epidemic Unless the city, which is an important financial center, wants to remain a “closed port forever.”

imposed Hong Kong Severe travel restrictions to keep the virus out of the city for two years, but these restrictions have left the global city increasingly isolated and the spread of the mutated Omicron Since January, residents and businesses have fled the growing list of restrictions.

The surge in infections has undermined the city’s healthcare system and left it with one of the highest COVID-19 death rates in the developed world as the government faces criticism for failing to vaccinate the elderly population in a timely manner.

“The past two months have been a very painful loss experience for us that does not allow us to wait,” chief epidemiologist Gabriel Leung, who leads a team of scientists working on the virus, told reporters on Tuesday.

Scientists estimate that regarding 4.4 million people in densely populated Hong Kong, or 60% of the population, have so far been infected during the Omicron wave.

Official figures have recorded more than a million infections and nearly 6,000 deaths since January, most of them from the unvaccinated elderly population.

Leung, dean of the Hong Kong Medical School and a government expert, stressed the importance of receiving the vaccine and booster doses, saying at the same time that Hong Kong must begin to live with the virus unless it “wanted to remain a closed port forever.”

He added that making the epidemic an endemic disease is “the safer way because we do not know whether the next new mutation is stronger or weaker than what we have seen so far.”

(France Brush)