It is now four years since Covid-19 first entered our consciousness and then invaded our lives, a deadly and unwanted enemy. Yet now it seems to have been almost forgotten about, as if it is totally gone and not a threat anymore. But is that really true and are we perhaps being a little too complacent?
There can be no doubt that it is still around. It was noted in the I online newspaper that there were 1.35 million people in the UK suffering from Covid at the beginning of 2024. There was a particular spike in December, when it was reported that there were 2.5 million cases of Covid, amounting to about 4% of the population.
Other countries
In other countries, there have been spikes with it reported in January in the USA that, according to federal wastewater data released last Friday, ER visits, hospitalizations, and deaths continue to rise, Covid levels had reached their second-highest level of the pandemic in the USA.
Particular problems have also been reported in Singapore and the Singapore Ministry of Health (MOH) has released a statement “strongly encouraging” people to wear a mask after the country had seen a record rise in the number of coronavirus cases in the first week of December.
Is Covid still a threat?
So, despite the general silence from the media, Covid is still a threat to us all and we need to be aware of it. We need to ensure that we are not complacent and that if we need to wear masks we should do so. For example, it has been reported that Spain has reintroduced mask wearing in hospitals. Additionally, we must also continue to encourage those who are eligible to take up the vaccine boosters.
Unfortunately, the age limit for the vaccine has gone up in the last year from 60 to 65, along with the age for flu jabs and this does seem a little complacent in the circumstances. It has also been reported that vaccine uptake among those who still are still eligible has been significantly down this year, compared to last year.
What we need to do
It has also been rightly pointed out in Bylines Cymru (republished from The Conversation) that it would be useful for a public health campaign to remind people that just because they might have had Covid, they are not immune to further doses of it. It is also important that we extend the vaccine programme to under-65’s. There should also be a reminder to people to get tested if they feel that they may have the symptoms and that the testing kits keep up with new variants of Covid.
It was also noted that we still also need to do more regarding extra ventilation of indoor places and ensure that we truly learn the lessons from the pandemic. After all, we may see other pandemics in the future and we need to be better prepared for them than we were for Covid.
To truly live with Covid as we go forward means continuing to be aware of its dangers and not allowing complacency to creep in.
This article is based upon Covid barely gets a mention these days – here’s why that’s dangerous on Bylines Cymru (republished from The Conversation)
