As of June 8, Beijing time, the cumulative number of confirmed cases of new coronary pneumonia in has exceeded 6.7 million, and the cumulative number of deaths has exceeded 390,000, an increase of more than 2 million confirmed cases from 20 days ago. The impact of the epidemic that has lasted for nearly half a year on this world is disastrous. However, we must remember the pain and continue to live.
After April, many countries have begun to resume work and school, and gradually returned to their normal agenda: US President Trump announced the "restart of the United States" plan; France's economy is overwhelmed and announced that it will implement the lifting measures soon; Denmark plans to reopen daycare centers and schools...
What changes have taken place in the lives of people around the world after experiencing this worst plague in the 21st century? How far has our work, study and entertainment activities returned to? When will we see the dawn of the road to "unblocking"?
text | Paella Picture | Happy IYE
1
Which countries' economies are recovering?
The global spread of the new crown pneumonia epidemic has put the world's development to a standstill, but after months of crisis, the situation seems to be gradually improving.
Generally speaking, the higher the turnover rate in the workplace, the more economic activity and the higher the degree of economic recovery. has resumed work in China at present, and we divide the other 39 major countries that are most affected by the epidemic into 4 types based on the resumption rate and cure rate.
The first category is high cure rate and high resumption rate, representing the country is New Zealand . The country has reduced the total number of cases and cured a rate of 98%, the highest of all countries due to early and effective epidemic response measures. After nearly 50 days of lockdown, the government has decided to implement a flexible four-day working system to promote economic growth. should also be classified as this type given the current high cure rate of more than 94% in China and the full resumption of work.
The second category is low cure rate and high resumption rate, representing the country is Brazil . After relaxing the lockdown measures from the national level to the local level, Brazil's daily new cases surged. On May 28, after resuming work, there were still 24,151 new cases and 1,067 new deaths in the country.
The third category is with high cure rate and low resumption rate, which represents the country Italy. , which was once the center of the European epidemic, has cured more than 65%, but the unstable number of new cases has made the government cautious about resuming work.
The last category is low cure rate and low resumption rate, which represents the country that is the UK. The cure rate in the UK is only 0.5%, and the government only encourages industries that are necessary and cannot work remotely.
2
National countries have gradually opened their schools
In the past six weeks, more than 20 countries around the world have reopened schools. Most of the back-to-school policies in are not implemented nationwide, but are based on the degree of regional epidemic prevention and control. For example, the earliest school starts in China was Qinghai Province, a low-risk area with no new cases for 32 consecutive days.
At the report meeting held by the Ministry of Education on April 20, experts such as Zhong Nanshan, Li Lanjuan, and Zhang Wenhong agreed that most parts of the country will resume classes one after another. Not only that, schools and kindergartens that have resumed classes have adopted mandatory hygiene measures and social distancing policies.
The Ministry of Education stipulates that schools that resume classes must be equipped with necessary prevention and control materials, such as masks, disinfectants, thermometers, alcohol, infrared thermometers and gloves. Teachers and students must wear masks, undergo regular temperature testing, and various public facilities are disinfected regularly.
Most countries that have resumed classes have experienced more than 40 days of suspension of classes. China also went through about 40-60 days from the Ministry of Education’s announcement of classes on January 29 to students in various provinces and cities returning to campus.
From the figure, it can be seen that most countries in choose to open schools only after the peak of the epidemic, and the number of new confirmed cases nationwide after the resumption of classes has basically maintained a downward trend., but there are exceptions: in South Korea, cluster infections of the new coronavirus centered on in the capital circle continued to occur, resulting in the emergency closing of about 250 schools near the capital circle on May 28 a few days after school starts, and schools in other areas remain open.
In addition to South Korea, Vietnam also saw a slight increase in new cases after resuming classes, but it was then controlled. What is more worrying is the situation of Madagascar and Czech . The two countries have already passed the peak of infection, but after the resumption of classes, there has been a clear secondary outbreak trend.
Nevertheless, South Africa, Indonesia , Pakistan and other countries still announced that they would resume classes at nodes that have not yet passed the peak period. This decision will prompt these countries to strengthen prevention and control and pass the resumption of classes smoothly, or repeat the same mistake and get out of control again, which is worthy of continuous attention.
3
Where have people gone during the epidemic?
Google Maps collects people's movement trajectories during the epidemic, and calculates the frequency of people going out during the epidemic and the length of staying in public places. It can be seen that although many countries have passed the outbreak of the epidemic in , the flow of people in public places is still much lower than before the epidemic.
Except for China, among the 38 major countries in the world that have been severely affected by the new crown epidemic, the public place mobility rate in 32 countries showed a significant downward trend. Only Norway, South Korea, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Finland , and Netherlands have increased in travel rates.
In fact, the turnover rate of public places has nothing to do with the number of confirmed cases, but is related to the degree of restrictions in each country and people's travel habits. There are nearly 270,000 confirmed cases in the UK, but people's travel rate has risen instead. In contrast, there are more than 10,000 confirmed cases in the Philippines, but the turnover rate has been reduced by more than 200%.
According to the data of Oxford University "Strictness of Epidemic Policy" (4.20-5.25 period), the travel policy strictness of Colombia, Chile, and the Philippines, which have the lowest public places flow in the figure above, are as high as 90.74, 78.24, and 100 (full score), respectively, while Norway, South Korea, and Denmark, which have the highest public places flow rate, are only 64.81, 43.52, and 68.52 respectively.
This shows that the attitude and measures of the government have greatly affected people's response to the epidemic. During the epidemic, China's restrictive measures are also the key to our ability to control the epidemic well.
In addition, due to the differences in people's travel habits, different types of public places are also greatly affected by the new crown epidemic.
Among various public places, retail and entertainment venues are most affected by the new crown epidemic. Because most countries have restricted business operations, and many food and entertainment consumption are non-essential consumption, people no longer go to restaurants and cinemas to engage in activities.
Since food and medicines are necessities during the epidemic, the retail industry is the relatively least affected business place. Overall, the frequency and time of people from all countries going to supermarkets and pharmacies have not been greatly reduced. On the contrary, some countries have also experienced a "rush to buy" of supermarkets being crowded.
However, it is more polarized for non-closed public places such as parks, beaches, and squares. According to the data, during the epidemic, because restaurants, bars and other places are not open, people in European and American countries especially like to spend time in open public places such as parks and beaches. The turnover rate has not decreased but has increased significantly, while other countries choose to stay at home.
European and Americans who are crazy about being quarantined at home have begun to teach cats
With the unblocking of Wuhan and the resumption of work and school across the country, the lives of Chinese people have gradually gotten on track. But now is still not the time to relax your vigilance.
After the lockdown was lifted, the epidemic rebounded rapidly, and collective infections broke out in many places; the number of confirmed cases of collective infections in Itaewon nightclubs in South Korea also continued to rise.This means that if you are not careful, the previous anti-epidemic efforts of the entire country will be in vain. Therefore, at what time to unblock, how to strengthen epidemic prevention measures, and how to face possible secondary outbreaks are all the homework that governments of all countries need to do.
For the public, the unblocking of travel restrictions does not mean that the awareness of epidemic prevention can be "unblocked", and the situation of the world's anti-epidemic situation is still difficult to predict. WHO head Michael Ryan said that the global pandemic will usually last for several waves, and we should realize that the COVID-19 infection rate may suddenly rise at any time, and we cannot assume that it will continue to decline. We still need to remain vigilant and prepare for the arrival of a second wave of the epidemic.
