BATTLE AGAINST VIRUS CONTINUES

Vaccine hope a year after pandemic emerges, but no clear sign of normal lives to resume

THE world yesterday marked one year since the coronavirus threat was declared a pandemic, with vaccinations offering hope but much of humanity still enduring highly restricted lives and no clear path back to normality.

The enormity of the continuing global challenge was reflected in a stark warning by the International Council of Nurses (ICN) that an exodus is looming of healthcare workers traumatised by the pandemic.

“They have reached a point where they’ve given everything they can,” ICN chief executive Howard Catton said.

While restrictions are easing in many parts of the world, hotspots persist, such as Brazil, which on Wednesday reported a record 2,286 deaths in a single day as more contagious new variants fuel a surge there.

“It took a long time for the politicians to act. We are paying for it, the poor people,” said Adilson Menezes, 40, outside a hospital in Brazil’s Sao Paulo, where all non-essential businesses are closed to help fight the virus.

On the economic front, the United States Congress passed one of its biggest stimulus efforts ever — a US$1.9 trillion package that President Joe Biden said would give struggling American families a “fighting chance”.

Since first emerging in China at the end of 2019, the coronavirus has killed more than 2.6 million people and forced unprecedented curbs on movement that eviscerated economies.

The World Health Organisation officially declared Covid-19 a pandemic on March 11 last year as infection numbers were beginning to explode across Asia and Europe.

About 4,600 deaths had been officially recorded around the world at the time.

But with the US only just starting to feel direct impacts of the pandemic, then-president Donald Trump played down the threat.

“The virus will not have a chance against us,” he said.

Under his chaotic leadership, the US would become the hardest-hit nation: the American death toll today stands at more than 528,000.

The only defences to the contagious virus one year ago appeared to be face masks and stopping people from interacting.

Global aviation came to a standstill and governments imposed restrictions, forcing billions of people into lockdown.

“We are on a war footing,” Corinne Krencker, the head of a hospital network in eastern France said on March 11 last year, as patient and death numbers began to surge.

At the same time, governments and scientists launched the race to create vaccines — research and development that would take place at an unprecedented, breakneck pace.

Today, several shots are being rolled out, including those developed in the US, Germany, China, Russia and India.

More than 300 million vaccine doses have been administered in 140 countries, according to an AFP count.

The global vaccine rollout has also exposed power and wealth divides.

Rich nations have surged ahead with their mass vaccination programmes, while billions in poorer nations are still waiting to receive shots.

Hope for a worldwide push has been boosted by the launch of deliveries under the WHObacked Covax scheme, which aims to ensure equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines.