One proposed by the Spanish government Easing of the monitoring of corona infections to relieve the strained health care system is met with a lot of resistance. “There are measures that cannot be dispensed with. Until this wave is over, it is not advisable to change the system, ”said the Vice President of the Spanish Society for Epidemiology, Óscar Zurriaga, in an interview with the German Press Agency on Wednesday.
The professor at the University of Valencia emphasized: “The pandemic is not over yet and we do not know where it will lead us.” Covid-19 cannot be compared to the flu. “In a bad flu season, we can have around 1,500 deaths.” Corona continues to have significantly higher numbers.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in an interview with the radio station “Cadena Ser” on Monday that Spanish experts had been working “for weeks” on treating Covid-19 like the flu and monitoring the development of infection cases using a guard system. One must take into account that Covid-19 is developing from a pandemic to an endemic diseaseto which one has to react with new instruments. Meanwhile, the socialist politician made it clear that one is not aiming to go it alone: ”We are trying to initiate a debate at European level.”
Criticism of the idea was not only loud in Spain. WHO Europe also does not see the time yet to declare the pandemic an endemic. While fighting a pandemic crisis, one must be very careful about predicting the future, WHO Regional Director Hans Kluge said on Tuesday. When asked whether Omikron could represent the last corona wave, he said: “This virus has surprised us more than once.”
WHO expert Catherine Smallwood also made it clear that one could not speak of an endemic for a long time, which is mainly characterized by a stable circulation of the virus. “We still have a great deal of uncertainty.” The virus is developing very quickly and is always presenting new challenges.