On November 19, 2021, pedestrians walked past a COVID-19 vaccination site in New York, USA. ( Xinhua News Agency )
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, November 21. Recently, the global COVID-19 pandemic rebounded, and the number of new confirmed cases reported by some countries hit a record high. Experts believe that the rebound in the epidemic is related to many factors such as seasonal changes, virus mutation, , premature unblocking, and insufficient vaccination. Many countries have recently tightened epidemic prevention measures and accelerated vaccination to control the rebound of the epidemic. Experts pointed out that the "tough battle" of the fight against the epidemic in the future is inseparable from the multi-pronged approach of prevention and control measures, vaccines and therapeutic drugs.
The epidemic rebounded
The weekly report on the global COVID-19 epidemic released by the World Health Organization on 316 showed that European regions had 230 new confirmed cases per 100,000 people in the past week, the highest in the world; the number of new confirmed cases in the region that week increased by 8% compared with the previous week, and the number of new deaths increased by 5% compared with the previous week, making it the only region where both data increased in the world.
This weekly report on the COVID-19 epidemic also shows that the number of new confirmed cases in the Americas has increased slightly compared with the previous week. The United States has the largest number of new confirmed cases in the world. Statistics released by Johns Hopkins University in the United States on the 21st showed that the United States has the largest number of confirmed cases and deaths in the new crown, with a total of 477,01,788 confirmed cases and a total of 771,013 deaths.
According to the Russian Epidemic Prevention Command on the 20th, the country added 1,254 new COVID-19 deaths on the same day, a record high since the outbreak of the epidemic, with a total of 262,843 deaths.
South Korea's Central Epidemic Prevention Countermeasures Headquarters reported on the 17th that as of 0:00 on the same day, South Korea had 3,187 new confirmed cases of new crown compared with the previous day, the second highest since the outbreak of the epidemic, with a total of 402,775 confirmed cases. There are currently 522 severe cases of COVID-19, the highest record since the epidemic.
On November 13, 2021, medical staff transported patients in Komunarka, on the outskirts of Moscow, Russia. (Xinhua News Agency)
reasons
WHO recently pointed out that among the new coronavirus strains that are prevalent in most countries, delta strain has an "absolute advantage". Among the 842,510 sample sequences submitted to the international shared gene sequence resource " influenza data sharing global initiative" platform from September to October, the Delta strain accounted for 99.5%.
Many experts believe that the rapid rebound of the epidemic in Europe is one of the reasons for the increase in indoor activities in winter, but issues such as premature easing of epidemic prevention restrictions and the need to increase vaccination rate are particularly worthy of attention.
Since South Korea launched the "Stage Restoration of Daily Life" epidemic prevention system on November 1, the epidemic has rebounded, and the number of existing severe cases of COVID-19 has reached a new high. Sun Yinglai, head of the social strategy group of the Central Emergency Response Headquarters of South Korea, told the media on the 16th that the recent increase in severe cases of COVID-19 is mainly due to the increase in infections in specific places such as people over 60 years old and nursing homes.
html Since the lockdown measures were lifted across Vietnam in early October, social order has gradually returned to normal. However, the COVID-19 epidemic in southern Vietnam has rebounded recently, and the number of confirmed and deaths in a single day has been increasing. Many places have resumed epidemic checkpoints, set up isolation areas and field hospitals for treating COVID-19 patients.Russian Vice Prime Minister Golikova recently said that the main reason for the rebound of the epidemic in Russia is that some Russian people have neither complied with epidemic prevention restrictions nor taken preventive measures, such as not actively getting vaccinated. Most of the patients who entered the intensive care unit for treatment and eventually died were not vaccinated, most of them were elderly people with cardiovascular disease , endocrine diseases and other diseases.
On November 9, 2021, people walked past an ambulance at a hospital in London, England. (Xinhua News Agency)
anti-epidemic combination
Recently, the research and development of many new crown oral drugs around the world has made progress, adding new hope to the fight against the epidemic. Experts pointed out that vaccines and drugs are complementary "combination punches" relationship, and the future "battle against the epidemic" is inseparable from prevention and control measures, vaccines and therapeutic drugs.
Currently, the research and development of new crown drugs mainly focuses on three technical routes: blocking viruses from entering cells, inhibiting virus replication, and regulating the human immune system. Several Chinese new crown drugs have entered clinical trials and are expected to become "new tools" in the fight against the epidemic.According to the scientific research team of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council of China recently introduced that China has independently developed new crown drugs completed phase III clinical trials and are applying for conditional marketing. Several other drugs have conducted phase III clinical trials at home and abroad, and are currently showing positive effects.
On the 4th of this month, the world's first anti-COVID-19 oral drug - Monabiravir jointly developed by Merck and Richbuck Biopharmaceuticals was first approved by the UK Drugs and Health Products Administration for the treatment of specific COVID-19 patients. Pfizer, the United States, released the latest data on an oral antiviral drug PAXLOVID on the 5th. The interim analysis results of phase II/III clinical trials showed that oral drug can reduce the risk of hospitalization and death by 89%.
Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences Special Researcher Chen Ling pointed out that vaccines and drugs are complementary "combination punches" relationship: not everyone can get vaccinated, and their protective effect and durability need to be further studied; some people with poor innate immunity do not get vaccinated well, and drugs can protect these people; with vaccine protection, there will be many fewer people who need medication in the end. Even if the drug has certain side effects, in terms of percentage, the absolute number of will not be very large; if a more effective and long-lasting vaccine can be developed, the use of drugs will be reduced. (Written reporter: Li Wen; participants: Luo Guofang, Zhang Xiaoru, Peng Qian, Zhang Yirong, Tao Jun, Du Baiyu, Sun Yiran, Geng Pengyu)
Source: Xinhua News Agency
