New nCoV strain pushes Europe into tragedy

Right after the holidays, the pandemic situation in Portugal quickly spiraled out of control.

However, these moves still seem to be insufficient and taken too late.

More than 10 ambulances carrying Covid-19 patients lined up outside Santa Maria hospital in Lisbon, Portugal, on January 22.

The tragedy in Portugal is said to be a typical example of the dangers of removing Covid-19 prevention measures while a new, more rapidly spreading strain of nCoV is silently creeping into society.

Health experts say the pandemic situation across Europe is becoming increasingly serious, due to the nCoV variant first discovered in southeast England last year.

Viggo Andreasen, assistant professor of epidemiology at Roskilde University, Denmark, said that the new nCoV strain is the factor that changes the situation.

Even Denmark, a country that was relatively successful in containing Covid-19 early, is also threatened by a new strain of the virus.

The Dutch National Institute for the Environment and Public Health last week reported an increase in the number of infections with the new strain of nCoV, and warned that the number of deaths and hospitalizations would also be higher.

The Netherlands went through a difficult five-week blockade from mid-December last year when the number of infections spiked.

Last week, the Dutch government was even more aggressive, imposing a curfew from 9:00 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. the next day, while also limiting the number of visitors to homes to one person per day.

The strict regulations caused many Dutch cities to fall into riots, when protesters destroyed and broke into buildings to protest, forcing police to use water cannons and tear gas to suppress and arrest people.

Other European countries also increased restrictive measures to deal with the new nCoV strain.

In Portugal, Ricardo Mexia, head of the National Association of Public Health Doctors, said before easing restrictions at Christmas, the government should have strengthened its preparations for the situation.

According to a January 3 report from the National Institute of Health Ricardo Jorge, the Covid-19 surveillance agency in Portugal, 16 cases of infection with the new nCoV variant were discovered on the continental territory, of which 10 people were infected.

Three days later, the government hastily tightened restrictions, but still could not prevent the number of new infections and deaths from piling up.

However, it was not until January 23 that the Portuguese government requested to stop flights to and from the UK.

Michael Ryan, head of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) emergency program, said earlier this month that they were assessing the impact of new nCoV variants, but warned they were being exploited as `human resources`.

`It’s too easy to blame mutations and say viruses caused it all. But unfortunately, the problem is also due to our inaction,` Ryan said.