Surges in COVID-19 activity, primarily in Europe and the Americas, are pushing health workers and health systems to their breaking points, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) warned today, as he urged governments to do more to reduce the pressure.
'Impossible choices' by frontline workers
At a media briefing, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, said the agency is extremely concerned about the current surges and pointed out that healthcare workers on the frontlines have been stretched for months and are exhausted. He warned that countries letting the virus run unchecked are playing with fire, creating needless deaths and suffering, putting more people to risk for long-term complications, and overburdening healthcare systems.
"Health workers went into medicine to save lives, as you know," Tedros said. "We must avoid putting them into a situation where they have to make impossible choices about who gets care and who doesn't."
He urged countries to do everything they can to support health workers, keep schools open, protect vulnerable people, and safeguard the economy.
"From calling up students, volunteers, and even national guards to support the health response in times of crisis, to putting strict measures in place that allow pressure to be removed from the health system," he said. "A laissez-faire attitude to the virus—not using the full range of tools available—leads to death, suffering, and hurts livelihoods and economies."
Promising vaccine news, challenges
WHO officials today said they lauded the encouraging news about the efficacy of two vaccine candidates, most recently the one from Moderna, which said today that its early analysis shows that the vaccine is 94.5% effective. (See related CIDRAP News story.)
However, the next step—getting it into the arms of people—will be another steep challenge. Edward Kelley, MD, PhD, the WHO's director of integrated health services, said it's not vaccines that save people, it's vaccination.
Kate O'Brien, MD, MPH, who heads the WHO's immunization program, said the people who need to receive the vaccines are the new focus, and work is beginning in every country on how to manage to immunize health workers. She noted that many countries don't have strong programs for immunization of adults. "So this is really going to have to lean on the programs that have focused on infants and adolescents."
There's an enormous amount of work to do and resources that will be needed to actually deliver the vaccines to everyone who needs them," O'Brien said.
Sweden imposes new limits
Sweden, known for its more relaxed approach to battling the virus during Europe's first spike, today limited public gatherings to eight for at least 4 weeks to help drive down its daily cases, which reached single-day highs last week, The Guardian reported. Last week the country ordered bars and restaurants to stop serving alcohol after 10:00 pm.
When question about Sweden's turnaround in its approach to battling the virus at today's WHO briefing, Mike Ryan, MD, who directs the WHO's health emergencies program, said all countries have had to adapt to new realities. He said Sweden had previously relied on the social contract with its citizens to slow the spread of the virus and protect citizens, but this time, it's asking its citizens to do more.
"It takes courage to move away from a path," Ryan added.
Some lockdown nations see promising signs
Meanwhile, some other European countries that ordered second lockdowns are starting to see some encouraging signs. For example, France's health minister said yesterday that the country appears to have passed its peak, with markers such as daily cases and positivity rates declining for 10 consecutive days, the Washington Post reported.
German leaders met today to discuss possible new lockdown measures but didn't agree to any new ones, Deutsche Welle reported. Chancellor Angele Merkel said case numbers are stabilizing, but too slowly to justify easing restrictions.
As lockdowns and other tough measures continue, some groups press on with protests, such as in Germany and Portugal, with reports that some citizens continuing to flout the new rules, including some in Paris.
In other global developments:
- An internal email from the WHO obtained by the Associated Press revealed that the agency has reported 65 cases among headquarters staff, including 5 who worked in the building and were in contact with each other. At today's briefing, WHO officials clarified that 65 cases have been reported since the start of the pandemic, 36 of them who had access to the premises. Five cases in one team were reported in the past week, and an investigation is under way into their connections. Officials said intense COVID-19 transmission is occurring in the area surrounding its Geneva headquarters, and so far it's not clear if the people contracted the virus in the community or at work.
- In Italy, a study based on lung cancer screening samples obtained from September 2019 to March 2020 in Milan suggests that some patients had SARS-CoV-2 antibodies well before February, when the virus was first detected in the country. The data hint that the virus may have spread from China much earlier than thought, Reuters reported.
- Amid an ongoing surge of cases in New Delhi, India is bringing in doctors from other states and is ramping up testing in an effort to bring down virus levels, according to Reuters.
- South Korea reported its eighth day of triple-digit cases yesterday, with most of the infections reported in and around Seoul.
- In Australia, the state of South Australia is battling its first local outbreak since April, with 17 cases reported so far, which officials have linked to the state's hotel quarantine system, CNN reported.
- The prime minister of the southern African nation of Eswatini, Ambrose Dlamini, has tested positive for COVID-19 and is isolating at home, according to Reuters.
- The global total today climbed to 54,768,726 cases and 1,322,134 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins online dashboard.
