The European Commission on Sunday put forward a prevention and control strategy for the winter season in response to the new coronavirus outbreak, and submitted its recommendations to the Council of Ministers of Health of the European Union (CCHM). The European Commission said that member states must adhere to the prevention and control in winter, especially during the end-of-year holiday period, and learn from previous lessons to avoid a new peak of the epidemic. The European Commission's health and food safety commissioner said that the recent member states to take different degrees of restrictive measures effectively control the number of new coronavirus infections, to a certain extent to ease the pressure on the health care system, but this stabilization of the situation is fragile.
The call is that until a safe and effective vaccine is available for mass vaccination, member states must adhere to strict prevention and control measures, and not relax restrictions too quickly and repeat the mistakes of this summer. The European Commission has recommended to this end that individual citizens continue to keep their social distance and reduce social contact. Member states should maintain testing and case tracking efforts, while clarifying quarantine requirements in the event of increased movement of people at the end of the year. In addition, the Commission recommends that member states safeguard the human and material resources of their healthcare systems and place greater emphasis on managing public fatigue. Germany's Health Minister Spann said the recommendations had been discussed at a video conference of the EU's Health Ministers' Council on the same day, on the basis of which the countries will strengthen the coordination of the prevention and control of winter epidemics.
Britain, France, Italy and Spain were the worst-hit European countries in the first wave of the epidemic. In the face of the first wave of the epidemic, all of these countries adopted a comprehensive embargo policy, and only gradually relaxed various restrictions in early summer. However, easing restrictions before a comprehensive detection and tracking system was in place is costing European countries money. Faced with a second wave of the epidemic, Britain and other European governments have been forced to tighten their once-relaxed embargoes.
The definition of the second wave of the new crown epidemic is different from that of SARS, whose end was marked by the discharge of the last patient from the hospital and the absence of new cases for two incubation cycles. However, the new crown epidemic has many mildly ill patients, making this difficult to achieve. Easing the embargo before the first wave of the epidemic is completely ended will surely lead to a rebound.
Unlike the first wave in the spring, young people, who were once thought to be less susceptible to neocoronaviruses, saw a dramatic increase in the number of infections in the second wave. One reason why we are seeing a rise in the number of confirmed cases in Europe is the increase in confirmed cases in young people.
The easing of the embargo before there was a well-established detection and tracking system was a major reason for the spread of the second wave of the epidemic in Europe. While the blockade was seen as a last resort, a key consideration for several European countries announcing a second blockade at this stage was to save Christmas in December.