These "non-pharmaceutical measures" can be especially valuable, says the report in "buying time" to develop drugs and vaccines. One of the most controversial restrictions – mobility restrictions and limits on the size of social gatherings – was the most effective and led to a "significant reduction" in transmission of the virus. How COVID-19 lockdown measures - and their outcomes - varied in cities around the world.Ebola in Uganda: lessons from COVID show that heavy-handed lockdowns may be a bad idea.“World’s largest brothel” pushed into crisis by COVID-19 lockdowns, bounces back with vaccination.However, the report acknowledges that when highly transmissible variants such as Omicron emerged, they were less effective. Effective measuresĪ study by the UK Royal Society published on 24 August 2023 showed that approaches to curb the spread of the virus such as masks, social mobility restrictions and lockdowns were effective at blunting the number of cases and deaths that would otherwise have been seen, especially in the first year when there were no treatments or vaccines against COVID-19. "Deaths are increasing in some parts of the Middle East and Asia, intensive care unit admissions are increasing in Europe and hospitalisations are increasing in several regions," he said. "We continue to see concerning trends for COVID-19 ahead of the winter season in the Northern Hemisphere," WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told an online news conference last week. The UK, for instance, is seeing 100,000 new cases a day, according to the Zoe Health Study, which is still continuing national surveillance. Worrying trendsĪlthough countries are seeing a spike in cases in the last month or two, this is not the full picture and are likely to be an underestimate, says the World Health Organization, as many countries have stopped reporting cases and deaths. Eris is now the most prevalent variant, accounting for over a quarter of cases (26.1% by mid-August). One of the latest sub-variants of Omicron that seems more infectious and able to evade immunity than previous variants has been called EG.5, nicknamed "Eris" after the Greek goddess of strife and discord. These moves are to counter the threat from the ever-evolving SARS-CoV-2 virus that is continuing to spawn new versions of itself. In the US, some private hospitals and clinics have reinstated mask requirements given the worrying spread of new variants, and the UK has brought forward its flu and COVID-19 booster vaccine campaigns by a month because of a spike in cases. "Deaths are increasing in some parts of the Middle East and Asia, intensive care unit admissions are increasing in Europe and hospitalisations are increasing in several regions." – Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General Yet three and a half years on, as the northern hemisphere moves towards winter and new variants of SARS-CoV-2 continue to evolve, talk of mask mandates and even lockdowns have been surfacing again. For many of us, lockdowns and other restrictions during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic have been filed away as an extraordinary moment in history in which the entire world was battling the same threat.
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