EU, US reiterate pandemic not over

▶ West’s adjusted responses increase risks, call for preparation: experts

As the EU and the US are moving ahead with their adjusted responses to COVID- 19 despite avoiding saying that “the pandemic is over” after warnings from the World Health Organization, countries, including China, must be prepared for increased risks of the virus spreading and mutating rapidly, as Western countries plan to scale down their anti- epidemic efforts and relax travel restrictions, Chinese experts warned on Thursday.

EU officials announced on Wednesday that the 27- nation bloc is moving out of the emergency mode in dealing with the COVID- 19 pandemic by proposing a set of actions to prepare for the next phase, citing lower levels of COVID- 19 infections in member states. Those countries were invited to apply coordinated rules to ensure free and safe travels within the continent and internationally. Also, under the new phase, testing will be limited and monitoring of the virus will also be significantly scaled down.

Almost simultaneously, the US government’s chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci said that the US is moving out of the pandemic phase, as the country has been recording declining new infections and the number of hospitalizations has also been dropping, according to US media reports. However, Fauci further clarified on Wednesday that his comment had been mischaracterized by some to mean that pandemic is over.

“We’re not over the pandemic... But what we are in is a different phase of the pandemic,” he said.

Like Fauci, EU officials reiterated the need to be cautious in the management of COVID- 19 by stressing that the pandemic is not over. Margaritis Schinas, vice president of the EU Commission, also said on Wednesday that the COVID- 19 pandemic is not over and the virus is here to stay.

“The EU is moving to a new phase with the aim of striking a balance between a COVID response and social and economic development, especially when immunity rates have reached a high level in some countries,” said Chen Xi, an associate professor of public health at Yale University.

For example, in the US, when the public has reached a relatively high level of immunity, when the new variant occurs, it won’t trigger a new wave of hospitalizations. Under such a circumstance, social and economic activities could gradually resume, Chen said.

The US CDC said nearly 220 million people, or 66 percent of the US population, are fully vaccinated. Of that number, 100 million have also received their first booster dose.

China has been adhering to its dynamic zero- COVID policy that has proven effective in keeping the death rate at a very low level.

However, as more Western countries reopen and resume cross- border travel and business, such transition into a new phase of dealing with COVID- 19 could bring new challenges to China in stopping imported cases, experts said.

“There are some urgent tasks, like driving up the vaccination rate among elderly people in China to above 80 percent in the next six months and increasing the number of ICUs and antiviral drugs to boost the medical capabilities for future reopening,” Chen said.