Ireland will be the first country in Europe to enter a new lockdown. The number of Covid-19 infections worldwide is approaching 41 million, according to statistics from Johns Hopkins University. More than 1.1 million people have died from the disease. Brazil, one of the most affected countries, is preparing to begin vaccination in January 2021 and has purchased a vaccine produced in China.
Ireland, the first European country, has decided to impose a second national lockdown. In the Czech Republic, there is a record number of new cases and the deputy prime minister has contracted the virus. Scientists have discovered who is at risk of “long COVID”: first and foremost, the likelihood of a prolonged course of the disease increases with age and existing health problems. Other factors include being female, being overweight and having asthma.
Violators of the closure are proposed to be fined on the spot with a maximum of 500 euros. Ireland has become the first country in Europe to impose a second national lockdown. Strict restrictions come into effect at midnight tonight and will last for six weeks. Most non-food stores will be closed. People will be instructed to stay indoors and will only be allowed to go out to work if absolutely necessary or to exercise within a five-kilometer radius of their homes. Having guests at home is prohibited, as are most mass gatherings, with the exception of weddings and funerals, with precautions being taken. Irish authorities expect many people to lose their jobs. They have increased unemployment benefits to 350 euros a week for those whose salaries exceed 400 euros a week.
On Tuesday, the country registered 13 new deaths and 1269 cases of Covid-19 infection. The national lockdown will be implemented by the Czech government starting Thursday. Only grocery stores will remain open. People will be allowed to leave their homes only for work and in cases of extreme necessity. Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said on Wednesday that the decision was not easy, but without a national quarantine, the country’s health system would not be able to handle the burden in just three weeks. A record number of Covid-19 infections have been reported in the Czech Republic. In the past 24 hours, 11,984 people have been infected with the virus and 106 people have died.
The coronavirus was detected in Czech Deputy Prime Minister Jan Hamáček. On Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Jan Hamacek announced a positive analysis for coronavirus. Gamachek, 41, is the leader of the Social Democratic Party, which is part of the governing coalition. He is also head of the central crisis center for the coronavirus pandemic.
During “long COVID”, symptoms may last for 8 weeks or longer. The likelihood of a long course of Covid-19 is increased by age and pre-existing health problems. These include being female, being overweight and having asthma. This is the conclusion reached by the authors of a study conducted by the Royal College London. BBC has been given access to unpublished research on the factors that influence the duration of recovery from Covid-19. The authors noted that “long COVID” – when symptoms do not resolve for eight weeks or longer – occurs in one in 20 patients. The study was conducted by specialists at King’s College London based on data collected through the Covid Symptom Study mobile application. The goal of this study is to identify the signs that will allow physicians to identify patients at an earlier stage who are predisposed to “long COVID”. “Having more than five different symptoms within the first week of illness is one of the key risk factors,” said Dr. Claire Stevens of the Royal College of London, according to the BBC. Symptoms may include cough, fever, tiredness, headache, diarrhea, loss of smell and taste. A person who has experienced several of these symptoms is more likely to have “long COVID” than someone who has only had a cough, for example. The risk also increases with age, especially for people over 50 and for women. “Early in the pandemic, data showed that men were more likely than women to have a severe form of COVID-19 and more likely to die from it. However, according to our research, women are more likely to experience ‘long COVID’ than men. Of the pre-existing health problems that preceded Covid-19, scientists have identified only asthma and lung disease as factors contributing to the development of ‘long COVID’.
Brazil plans to become one of the first countries in the world to begin national immunization against coronavirus using a vaccine made in China. São Paulo Governor João Doria announced that the state government will purchase 46 million doses of CoronaVac vaccine. The vaccination program is expected to begin in January 2021. The CoronaVac vaccine, developed by the Chinese company Sinovac Biotech, is in the final stage of clinical trials. They are being conducted in São Paulo. The Brazilian immunization program will also include a vaccine developed by the UK’s Oxford University and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca. Brazil remains one of the three countries (along with the United States and India) hardest hit by the coronavirus. There have been more than 5.3 million confirmed cases and approximately 155,000 deaths from Covid-19. The EU plans to exclude Canada, Tunisia and Georgia from the list of countries whose citizens can visit the Union countries during the pandemic and add Singapore to it. This was reported by the agency Bloomberg, citing its own source in Brussels. In this case, the EU’s “white list” will be reduced from 11 foreign countries to 9. They also include Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, Rwanda, South Korea, Thailand, and Uruguay.