England returns to full quarantine | the Chronicle

The British government was forced on Monday to impose the third quarantine to date of the pandemic in England due to the constant increase in cases and deaths from the coronavirus, while in Europe the controversy is intensifying due to slow vaccinations and largely epidemics in part of the world continue to increase.

The UK has woken up to the good news of being the first country in the world to add the application of the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine to its coronavirus vaccination campaign, the same that will be partially produced in Argentina.

Brian Pinker, an 82-year-old British pensioner who needs dialysis due to a kidney problem, received the AstraZeneca vaccine today at Oxford University’s Churchill Hospital and at this university, reported the BBC.

However, the picture cannot cover the difficult time the country is going through.

It has already vaccinated a million people with the vaccine from US and German pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech – which was also the first in the world to approve – but has faced a new wave of infections since the discovery in December of a new variant of coronavirus between 40% and 70% more transmissible.

This is why the prime minister
Boris Johnson today announced in a televised message to the nation the return to quarantine across England, with the closure of all schools and education centers, which from tomorrow will be giving virtual lessons, except for children of essential workers and children in vulnerable sectors, as reported by The Guardian newspaper.

In addition, he asked everyone to stay home and only go out to buy essentials. The only ones who will be able to get out are the so-called essential workers or people fleeing domestic violence.

The fear is not only limited in the UK compared to the so-called new British strain.

The epidemiologist
Daniel López Acuña, a former official with the World Health Organization (WHO), warned that Spain “is fully entering the third wave” of the coronavirus pandemic and that it “will be more virulent than the previous ones”.

The prognosis was known when critical voices multiplied for the slowness of the vaccination campaign.

To date, the country has received 718,575 doses of the American Pfizer vaccine, of which 82,834 have been administered.

Similar criticisms have been heard in other European countries, where the population and the opposition demand greater speed of vaccination.

“They are laughing at us, today being vaccinated is more complicated than buying a car”, denounces in France Jean Rottner, member of the Republican opposition party (LR), who demanded an “acceleration” of the campaign .

“Today we are facing a state scandal,” said Rottner, president of the Grand Est region, which is among the most affected by the pandemic.

In Italy, another of the most affected countries in the region, the tension was not less and it was clear today that the Government is preparing to announce more stringent provisions.

While finalizing the details of the new plan of measures against the coronavirus which will be in force from next Thursday, all of Italy has today ceased to be a “red zone”, after four days of being cataloged in the epidemiological risk maximum, and only for 24 hours it will be an “orange zone” before reverting to the stricter restrictions.

As part of the planned openings and closings that the government of Giuseppe Conte organized last month, Italy will today authorize the opening of shops until 9:00 p.m. and the “take out” modality of bars and restaurants. restaurants, after starting the year with a three-day ban on travel between and in the 20 regions and closing of businesses and bars.

It is estimated that after this brief window of easing restrictions, they will come back and get tougher.

In Asia, the epidemics are minor, but the fear is not.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga today announced that his government is considering declaring a new state of emergency in the Tokyo metropolitan area due to an increase in coronavirus cases which has put the country in a “very serious situation “.

Meanwhile, in the rest of the region, China today stepped up its coronavirus vaccination campaign in Beijing which began on January 1, Hong Kong has extended restrictions and South Korea said it would speed up the approval of the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine.

In Latin America, the imminence of a second wave is already overwhelming all national political debates and, with it, the need to guarantee doses to vaccinate the majority of populations as quickly as possible.

In Brazil, the most affected country in the region but still without a start date for its vaccination plan, President Jair Bolsonaro said today that the doses “are on their way”, just as expected. that the AstraZeneca and Sinovac laboratories, with their Brazilian partners, request this week the authorization of their vaccines from the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa).

In Chile, meanwhile, they are awaiting the arrival of the third shipment of vaccines from the Pfizer laboratory in the coming hours, while a group of opposition MPs announced that tomorrow they would present a bill to make compulsory the vaccination against coronavirus.