Meat Processing Plant in Germany. A church in Seoul. A squat and a hospital in Italy. Wholesale market in Beijing. All of them faced a bunch of infections after national authorities announced that they were slowly returning to their country of illness and normal life.
Months into the epidemic, the fear of a second-wave infection is now turning to countries that have largely shut down the disease through economically and socially painful lockdowns.
The incubation period of up to two weeks, some infected can spread the disease before symptoms show up, and others are asymptomatic ... all of which help to spread the virus unwantedly before the virus can spread. South Korea attracted international attention last week when its disease control officials announced that the country was entering the second wave of the world's first, centered around the capital, and apparently began the May holiday summit.
Mass testing, tracing, and isolation are not possible in some parts of the Global South
Linda Bould, Professor of Public Health
There is no scientific definition of the term "second wave". This could be anything from local spikes in the transition to a full-blown national crisis, and some experts may have avoided the cause. Asked at a news conference, the World Health Organization refrained from using it to describe the situation in South Korea.
There is more consensus on both prevention and how to manage new outbreaks, using methods that have been highly respected for the past few months to detect those who are infected and prevent the spread of the disease.
"When there is no vaccine or effective drug, it's all about the data. We need to know where the cases are," said Linda Bould, a professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh. "To identify who has the disease: tests, tracing and isolation."
With these steps, a multitude of localized infections can be identified and quickly matched to a full-scale national outbreak.
Preventive measures can help limit the speed at which any new cluster can spread, said Keith Neal, an emerging professor at the University of Nottingham's Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases. He encouraged people to think that there is no magic pill, but "every little helps": "If you reduce every risk by 10% or 20%, you have a big deficiency. Wear it, work from home. ”
However, these policies to close the second wave only work in countries that are capable of stopping the virus and have the resources to pay for testing, tracing and lockdown.
In the US, some states began to rest the lockdown before the virus was introduced, and they reappeared a few weeks after the onset of the infection, a serious reminder of how easily the virus recombines. Is. The country's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has warned that the second wave is premature, however, the country is not yet in the first wave.
It is almost impossible to contain the virus in countries like Afghanistan, poverty, and war; Living at home means that without food, even strictly enforced orders are ignored.
“In some parts of the Global South, large-scale testing, tracing, and isolation is not possible,” says Bould.
Inequality in regulation and constant alertness about travel restrictions means that the effective vaccine or cure is likely to continue.
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