Romania achieves a momentary “natural immunity” at the cost of thousands of deaths from coronavirus

After suffering a very tough fourth wave of the pandemic, Romania now has the contagion rates of coronavirus lowest in the EU, in an evolution that experts attribute to a natural immunity achieved at the cost of record numbers of deaths and that, they warn, will not by itself prevent another wave.

Between October 8 and November 7, Romania had every day the highest mortality rate in the European Union (EU), with days in which the deceased in the country accounted for up to 40% of all deaths in the 26 other EU countries added.

SIGHT: Ómicron: In which countries has the new variant of the coronavirus been confirmed?

In the two months between September 5 and November 5, 15,500 people died of covid, a quarter of all those who died from this disease in the 21 months of the pandemic.

• Romania holds COVID-19 vaccination marathon
• Central European hospitals collapse from coronavirus and cannot treat all patients
• Some 33,000 Romanians cancel their appointment to receive the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine within 24 hours

After a peak at the end of October, the infection and death curve began to decline rapidly, despite the fact that less than 40% of the population is vaccinated and the government has not yet introduced a general lockdown or other severe restrictions.

“The fact of having had a high number of infections has meant that a part of the population that survived the virus has developed natural protection,” says Doina Azocai, president of the Romanian Society of Epidemiology, explaining this rapid decline in contagions.

COLLAPSE OF CONTAGES

Azocai refers to the days in October and November when the pandemic broke records in Romania, when the authorities registered close to 20,000 cases in 24 hours.

These figures have been reduced to just over a thousand cases a day that are registered at the moment.

The death toll has also fallen at an accelerated rate, with Romania registering fewer than 100 deaths on December 1 for the first time since September, although the death rate is still double the EU average.

PANDEMIC CYCLES

Razvan Bobe, infectious diseases doctor at Bucharest University Emergency Hospital, agrees with Azocai when it comes to highlighting this factor.

“Epidemics evolve in cycles or waves of greater or lesser intensity, as has also been confirmed during this pandemic,” explains the specialist to Efe, who partially attributes the decline in infections to the reduction in the mass of the population susceptible to contracting the disease. disease.

“It is not that the virus loses virulence, but that the receptive mass of the population, that is, the people who can be infected, is consumed,” says Dr. Bobe.

70% NATURAL IMMUNITY

According to a study published at the end of November by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 70% of the Romanian population has developed natural immunity when contracting the virus at some point in the pandemic, the highest percentage in all of Europe.

At the other extreme is Norway, where only 3% have achieved natural immunity.

RELAXATION OF MEASURES

The rapid decline in the number of cases, deaths and hospitalizations has led the Romanian authorities to relax their offensive to force skeptics to get vaccinated, and the law that would require vaccinations to go to work remains without a vote in the Parlament.

Instead of increasing the pressure on the unvaccinated, who are still unable to enter shopping centers and entertainment venues and are prohibited from going out at night, the Romanian authorities have decided to lift some restrictions on those who have been vaccinated.

On November 19, Romania once again allowed vaccinated people to attend cultural and sporting events, which until then took place without an audience.

ALARM AMONG THE EXPERTS

The measure has been criticized by doctors and public health experts, who denounce that excessive relaxation will once again put Romania in a situation of vulnerability in the face of the fifth wave that has already triggered the number of cases and hospital admissions in many more vaccinated countries.

“Only a responsible and consistent attitude will limit the effects of the fifth wave,” says contagious disease doctor Razvan Bobe, who is not optimistic and predicts a fifth wave for Romania “at least as intense” as it has been. been the fourth.

RECOMMENDED VIDEO

IT MAY INTEREST YOU

• How is the “brutal” Romanian Orthodox baptism that cost a baby his life
• Ana Aslan, the doctor who discovered the “Youth Pill” visited Lima 50 years ago
• Ten dead in a fire at a coronavirus hospital in Romania
• ‘You will be proud of us’: the Romanian people who overwhelmingly re-elected their dead mayor
• Ten newborns are infected with coronavirus in a maternity hospital in Romania

.

Deshawn