The next few weeks will be decisive in determining how well Europe tackles the second wave of COVID-19, professor Jean-Luc Gala, the director of St-Luc Academic Hospital in Brussels, told Sputnik on Monday
BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th October, 2020) The next few weeks will be decisive in determining how well Europe tackles the second wave of COVID-19, professor Jean-Luc Gala, the director of St-Luc Academic Hospital in Brussels, told Sputnik on Monday.
Over the past week, countries across Europe, including France, Italy, Belgium, Poland, the Czech Republic, have all reported one-day COVID-19 records, prompting authorities to reimpose further restrictions from mandatory mask wearing to curfews. In Belgium, Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke said live on the RTL channel on Sunday that the situation in Brussels and Wallonia is "very close to a tsunami." The minister warned that if hospital admissions continued rising that way, the authorities would have to postpone all non-COVID-19 clinical care.
"The last level of danger is when hospitals only can treat coronavirus and have to refuse corona patients. We were close to that ultimate level in Spain, Italy, Great Britain or France in the spring, with doctors in hospitals having to 'select' the patients they accepted. Governments know that this is the highest danger but they also know that they cannot get their country into a tight lockdown mode. It would kill the economy! So, they try to be tough but flexible. The next few weeks will be essential in the fight against this second wave," Gala said.
According to the doctor, the positive test rate in some EU countries has recently surged to over 14 percent from about 4.5 percent in early September. Daily hospital admissions and the number of intensive care patients have also been on the rise, turning into the main "nightmare of any health or political decider in Europe now."
The expert believes that a "general acceptance and unanimity" in respecting the existing restrictions would determine which country would succeed in fighting the virus.
Virologist Steven Van Gucht, who chairs the Belgian government's scientific committee for coronavirus, also calls for more vigilance.
"The dikes are on the point of falling. So, the population must take symptoms very seriously and isolate at home plus see a doctor for a test when they occur. Typical symptoms are now well-known: sudden loss of smell or taste, coughing, shortness of breath, chest pain," Van Gucht told Sputnik.
According to the virologist, flu has not started active circulation in Belgium at the moment, so the chance that symptoms are due to the coronavirus is "very real." He urged everyone with symptoms to stay at home, avoid contacts and call their doctor to get tested in order to not give the virus a chance to spread further.
"Keep in mind that people without symptoms can also spread the virus. After all, people are contagious two to three days before the first symptoms appear. In addition, about 30 to 40 percent of people can develop the infection without any symptoms," he added.
People, the expert went on, should "behave as if we are potentially contagious, even if we feel in the best of shape," and bear in mind that the virus can spread "very sneakily." Everyone should be especially aware of this when they are around people of poor health or of advanced age, the virologist warned.
