The growth in the number of new Covid-19 cases in Europe has been drawing the attention of the population and the medical community in recent days. Last Monday (20), the total of new infections in Italy rose from 15,213 to 30,798 — this is the first time the number has reached above the level of 30 thousand since November of last year. For specialists, however, most deaths were from people who were not vaccinated.
In an interview with CNN, cardiologist Ricardo Petraco, from Imperial College London, stated that “about 80% diagnosed in Europe are related to the new variant [Ômicron], but that’s not to say it’s worrying”. He believes that the most important thing is not the number of infected people, but the total number of deaths and hospitalizations.
In any case, Petraco says that preliminary data on Ômicron indicate that it will be less aggressive than imagined. “There will be other variants, but, in a context of vaccinated people, the impact should be smaller”, he believes.
For him, governments must be responsible and need to put social and legal pressure on the population to be immunized.
In the expert’s opinion, the high number of people already vaccinated in Brazil is a positive indicator. Even so, he warns that protective measures must not be relaxed. “You have to be sensible”, he ponders. He explains that transmission occurs more easily indoors.
Data from the Ministry of Health show that, in all, more than 75% of the Brazilian population has already received the first dose, and more than 65.5% of people have the complete vaccination schedule — that is, they took two doses or the vaccine. Single dose.
“I believe the European government was emphatic when it released the population’s right to remain unmasked in open spaces. Perhaps this could have helped in the transmission of Ômicron”, he concludes.
Cases in Europe
The United Kingdom reported 90,000 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday (21), and the total infected in the seven days to December 21 was 63% higher than in the previous week period.
Ômicron is already the dominant variant in Denmark, the country’s Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said on Tuesday, citing data from the Statens Serum Institut (SSI), part of the local Ministry of Health.
In Paris, France, the Ômicron variant represents a third of new cases detected and 10% of all infections in the country, government spokesman Gabriel Attal told reporters.
Reference: CNN Brasil
