how Europe is preparing for the advancement of new strains

The arrival of the British, South African and Brazilian variants in Britain and France has raised fears of a large epidemic and they are preparing with measures draconian to be able to control it.

Government officials are divided between those who want to shut everything down and isolate themselves and those who believe “we must move forward or take strict preventive measures”, including changing masks current for the most secure.

The EU has accepted that each country can take whatever measures it deems necessary in an emergency, especially around its borders.

During an emergency meeting Thursday evening, the 27 members of the EU spoke at a summit “the rapid escalation of the stringency of measures against the virus in the coming weeks to preserve hospital capacities, accelerate vaccination campaigns and reduce cross-border movements ”.

In Britain, ministers are pressuring Boris Johnson to close the borders. The plan of his cabinet is to forbidden entry non-Britons to the kingdom by air, train and ferry.

The Prime Minister rejected the proposal but is back on the agenda again due to the contagion problem generated by the variants. The possibility will be discussed at a cabinet meeting that the Prime Minister will lead next week. Currently flights to South America, Panama, Cape Verde and South Africa are forbidden from Great Britain.

Britain’s R transmission rate fell from 0.8 to 1, suggesting that containment gives results for the first time in weeks.

Imminent confinement

France faces the same problem. Government epidemiologists and specialists urge Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron to “Severe national confinement” as the virus continues to circulate at “a high level” and “there is a tense situation with exhausted hospital staff”.

Neither the executive nor its scientists hide it: France will not be able to escape a third confinement. The discussion is whether they do it now and postpone it longer, but do it or do it later, in a few weeks. This is the public recommendation of Professor Renaud Piarroux, epidemiologist and head of the parasitology service at the Pitié Salpetriêtrière hospital in Paris.

The situation in France is not as dramatic as in Great Britain. But the problem is the effect they will have the new variants, already existing in France, on hospital capacity. They expect a late February and March with intensive therapy rooms accused.

“We are currently in a dynamic that will not affect hospitals imminently. But this will force the executive power to impose restrictions to avoid saturation at the end of February ”, analyzed Professor Mirceo Sofonea, doctor in epidemiology and evolution of infectious diseases at the University of Montpellier.

According to his model, at the current rate, there could be 4,000 patients hospitalized in intensive units in mid-February and 5,000 in early March. But those numbers may change if the pressure of new variants of the virus kicks in.

In this scenario, France would be forced to use its 4,000 resuscitation beds that the country normally has for the virus and cancel all operations that require resuscitation. The country has only two weeks to avoid this tragedy and they are working on it.

The impact of the curfew, which applies from six in the afternoon across the country, will just assess it in two more weeks.

France expects the UK variant of the virus to dominate the country by March. Experts predict “a strong growth of the epidemic” and ask the government not to “confine tardilyWhen the hospitals are already loaded and the hospital overwhelmed.

Will the next French lockout be very strict with school closures, like in March, or will there be a version of it? more relieved, like in November? More than a scientific measure, it is a political decision to be adopted by Emmanuel Macron.

Before the appearance of variants, France now requires a test before reaching the very land of Europeans, and a forced quarantine plus another test. They do not rule out closing the borders if necessary.

The jugular debate

So far he has 300 deaths per day. But to limit contagion, they have established other criteria for masks. Health Minister Olivier Moran said that craft masks they are not safe for collective protection and there must be a social distance of 2 meters between people.

Only three types of masks are accepted: surgical, on a white side and a blue side, FFP2, which are the most protective industrial textile masks, and category 1, which filter 90 percent particles.

The virus in the brain

A group of French researchers have been able to show that the virus does not only enter the brain but also contaminates neurons.

Nicolás Renier, of the Paris Brain Institute and one of the study’s co-authors, said it caused headaches, dementia, convulsions and abnormal movements, all strange symptoms in hospitalized patients with Covid 19.

Paris, correspondent