From Hong Kong to California, cities and states around the world are reimposing restrictions to contain resurgent coronavirus outbreaks, as the number of global infections surpasses 13 million and the World Health Organization warns there are “no shortcuts” out of the pandemic. That includes a vaccine.
While experts hope there will be an effective inoculation against Covid-19 by early 2021, a new study suggests that immunity could be lost within months, and that the virus may reinfect people year after year, like the common cold. Whether the world finds a cure or not, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has urged the use of tools available now to suppress transmission and save lives.
“We need to reach a sustainable situation where we do have adequate control of this virus without shutting down our lives entirely or lurching from lockdown to lockdown,” Ghebreyesus said Monday.
But that is exactly what governments are being forced to do, as the pandemic continues to spiral out of control.
In the US, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced one of the most sweeping rollbacks of any state’s reopening plans, ordering all bars closed and restaurants, movie theaters, museums, zoos and card rooms to cease indoor operations, as cases surge. “It’s incumbent on all of us to recognize, soberly, that Covid-19 is not going away anytime soon,” Newsom said.
Hong Kong is imposing new travel and social distancing measures — among the most stringent since the pandemic started — as it battles a “third wave” of infections.
In the Philippines, a quarter of a million people in the capital of Manila will go back into lockdown as the virus spikes and hospitals reach capacity. “I am not sure if this is a solution, but I am certain that if I do this the number of cases will not increase,” Navotas city mayor Toby Tiangco told a local radio station, Agence France-Presse reported.
But that lockdown logic — all or nothing — is becoming harder to rationalize as the pandemic picks up pace: The tally of cases worldwide has jumped by a million in just five days.
