Author: Uncle Ming
The thing that worried me most has happened.
As epidemic prevention and control restrictions are lifted in many countries around the world, many people feel that the new coronavirus is gone and the epidemic has long ended.
Even if there is a confirmed diagnosis, the symptoms are almost the same as a common cold !
More crises are coming quietly.
After monkeypox , there is a new virus.
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According to a related paper published in the journal Viruses by researchers at the Zoonoses Research Center at Uppsala University in Sweden, they discovered a new coronavirus. Researchers named it "Grimsö Virus".
This new virus belongs to the same coronavirus (CoV) as the well-known new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), SARS virus (SARS-CoV), and MERS virus (MERS-CoV), and they all come from the beta coronavirus family.
Preliminary research shows that this new virus seems to be different from SARS and MERS, which originated in bats. It seems to be more like a seasonal coronavirus and is likely to be transmitted through rodents such as rats, mice and voles To humans.
What is extremely disturbing is that one of the hosts of the monkeypox virus that is now raging around the world is also rodents.
It is even possible that the earliest hosts of monkeypox were not monkeys at all, but rodents such as mice and voles.
Monkeypox virus can be transmitted to humans through bites from infected animals or direct contact with wounds, body fluids or respiratory droplets of sick animals, and can also be spread among people.
New viruses have been killed, but the new coronavirus has not gone far.
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Just when we all thought that the new crown epidemic was basically over, a new wave of new crown infections emerged.
Omicron subtypes BA.4 and BA.5 are sweeping the world.
In the past two weeks, the number of new cases in a single day in the world has increased by 30% compared with the previous time, with an average of 640,000 new cases every day globally;
Currently, more than 540 million people around the world have been infected with the new crown virus.
The number of daily deaths from the disease dropped by 1% from the previous level to 1,481;
The number of global deaths due to the new coronavirus has exceeded 6.32 million.
Judging from the absolute number of new cases , the United States maintains the largest number of confirmed cases in a single day, followed by Germany, France, Brazil and Taiwan, China.
The United States continues to have the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world.
In more than a month from the beginning of May to June 11, the proportion of infections caused by the BA.4 and BA.5 mutant strains in the United States increased by 21 times, and they spread very quickly.
Rockefeller University virologist Paul Bieniasz warned that millions of Americans are likely to be infected again.
The new variants of Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 have strong "immune escape" capabilities. The antibodies and new crown vaccine formed after being infected with the new coronavirus cannot provide good protection.
Soon, Europe fell again.
France once again set a record of detecting more than 100,000 positive cases in a single day. It reported 164,828 new infections on the 27th, and the average number of infections on the 7th reached 69,000, an increase of more than 330% compared with 16,000 cases at the end of May. .
The French Ministry of Health has called on French people to start wearing masks again in crowded areas, especially in public transportation.
The number of confirmed cases in Germany in a single day also exceeded 100,000. On the 27th local time, Germany reported 142,000 new cases, with an average of 82,750 new cases on the 7th. These two figures increased by 1.9 times and 1.7 times compared with the beginning of June.
The German Ministry of Health recommends that Germans resume wearing masks indoors and believes that Germany should pass a new infection protection law before winter.
The UK’s new coronavirus infection rate is also rising sharply.According to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics, the number of infections has increased by more than 40% in a week, and hospitalization rates for COVID-19 have also risen by 23%.
BA.4 and BA.5 have become the most mainstream mutant strains in Portugal, and the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations has also increased significantly, approaching the peak in January this year.
It is worth noting that due to the attacks of BA.4 and BA.5, the epidemic in Asian countries has also shown signs of resurgence.
On June 29, South Korea’s Central Epidemic Prevention Countermeasures Headquarters reported that South Korea had 10,463 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 that day. This is the first time since June 9 that the number of daily confirmed cases in South Korea has risen to more than 10,000.
On June 28, Singapore ’s epidemic situation also rebounded, with 11,504 new infections in a single day, the highest number of infections since March 22.
Hong Kong has exceeded 1,000 for the 9th consecutive day, and Macau has closed all cinemas and bars.
A visible fact is that the new coronavirus is becoming more and more transmissible, and its fatality rate has also increased.
The spread of the virus now is almost 3 to 5 times that of the early days.
According to the weekly epidemiological report on COVID-19 released by WHO , the mortality rate of COVID-19 has experienced an increase for the first time since February.
The protection rate of existing new crown vaccines against the Omicron variant has dropped significantly.
Obviously, it is too early to say that the new crown epidemic will retreat.
The global epidemic may linger in the short term.
The new coronavirus will not disappear immediately and may coexist with humans for a long time.
Looking back at the history of mankind's struggle against viruses, among hundreds of viruses that have infected humans, we have only succeeded in eliminating the smallpox virus .
We cannot predict whether there will be the next wave of epidemics. The only thing we can do is to be fully prepared.
When will the global new crown pandemic end?
All I can say is:
Hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
