While Covid infections continue to rise and fall around the world, the Philippines has opened its borders to fully vaccinated travelers. As we start welcoming thousands of foreign visitors, however, we must not let our guard down. The pandemic is far from over and we must not throw caution to the wind and put ourselves at risk of infection.
Associated Press headlines: “Biden press secretary has Covid-19, won’t travel to Europe.” “Hillary Clinton tests positive for Covid; Bill quarantining.” “German president and his wife test positive for Covid-19.” “Norway’s king tests positive for Covid, has mild symptoms.” “Shanghai Disneyland closes as virus rises.”
A recent Bloomberg report said Europe is trying to leave Covid-19 behind, but the rush to unwind restrictions is now setting the stage for a revival of pandemic risks. “Newly confirmed cases climbed to 5.4 million in the past seven days, up from 4.9 million at the end of February, according to World Health Organization data. More than 12,400 people died from Covid in the past week.”
Hans Kluge, the World Health Organization’s director for Europe, told a recent briefing that a third of European nations are seeing a surge in Covid infections after removing restrictions. “The countries where we see in particular an increase in cases are the United Kingdom, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, France, Italy and Germany,” Kluge said. “Those countries are lifting restrictions brutally from too much to too few.”
We can learn from the experience of countries that removed Covid restrictions, thinking they’re over the worst, only to see cases rise again. The Omicron and other new variants are still piling up infections in countries that have largely managed to keep the virus in check. Experts fear that the new infections may signal another wave of Covid-19, a surge that could threaten countries just coming out of their own Omicron experience.
From Bloomberg: “China’s worst Covid outbreak in more than two years continued to fester, with daily infections nearing 5,000 on Wednesday. The northeastern province Jilin, which has been put under lockdown, reported some 2,800 cases. Infections in Shanghai rose to almost 1,000 after testing was expanded. Cases appear to be declining in Shenzhen, which ended a weeklong lockdown earlier this week. The flare-up, fueled by the highly infectious Omicron variant, has been spotted in 28 out of 31 provinces on the Chinese mainland.”
In the country, the Department of Health reported a total of 3,572 new Covid-19 cases from March 14 to March 20, 2022, or an average of 510 new cases per day. The DOH said that on March 13, there were 805 severe and critical Covid cases admitted to the hospitals.
The Asian Development Bank recently said the outbreak of a new variant that would disrupt economic activities for two quarters could reduce the country’s economic growth by 0.4 percentage points. At the launch of the report titled “Southeast Asia: Rising from the Pandemic,” ADB Southeast Asia Department Senior Economist James Villafuerte said this projection is based on a new pessimistic scenario used to estimate growth in the region. Villafuerte said one risk factor this year is for more Covid-19 variants and Covid-19 waves to enter the countries in the region, including the Philippines. (Read, “New Covid variants pose risk to growth,” in the BusinessMirror, March 16, 2022)
“If we factor in at least two waves, that could disrupt activities for two quarters in 2022. What we are seeing actually is that the outlook for 2022, as we predicted in December last year, could be 0.8 percentage points lower,” Villafuerte said. “This is actually quite large.”
Many countries are lifting Covid mandates and trying to live with the virus in their desire to return to the routines and joys of everyday life. But the pandemic is not yet over, and we shouldn’t let our guards down just yet. As the Asian Development Bank said, the outbreak of a new variant could derail our economic growth. Two years of pandemic life have given us some strategies to avoid infection. We can all help sustain our economic growth by continually taking appropriate precautions.