Observational Report
There is a big difference in COVID-19 effects on countries’ economies and populations. And even the steps taken in controlling the spread of the disease. There is an immense volume of evidence on COVID-19, but nobody knows what health services do and how it operates in the Member States. The WHO European Regional Office (WHO Regional Office for Europe), are standing up to catch what is going on; to assist countries with coordination of their thought & preparation. This framework has been developed by WHO / Europe and is being applied with the assistance of the EU and the European Health Systems and Policies Observatory and frequently updated to advise and encourage policy at various stages of the pandemic. They also advise countries on releasing a press update on the situations of the pandemic to their citizens and give directives like sanitizing and practicing social distancing to curb the spread of the virus.
Some of the people who have COVID-19 infections have recovered from the virus. They note, however, that a few tend to suffer more serious illness forcing the patients to require admission to an intensive care unit for supervised treatments. Unfortunately, some patients have succumbed to the virus with the death cases so far being over 345000 confirmed dead people in the European region with COVID-19. However, 90 percent of these cases have been reported in Italy, the USA, Spain, and France. The risk of severe disease following COVID-19 infection has risen dramatically for older adults. For the European region, this is a very important observation as it’s among the top 30 countries with the largest percentage of older people, and these countries are the most affected. Older adults may also be more vulnerable to infection through reduced immune function or multimorbidity due to bodily changes associated with aging. This makes the old people more vulnerable to the virus and they are more likely to develop serious medical complications from COVID-19 that can ultimately cause death.
However, age is not the sole risk of serious illness. It is incorrectly understood that COVID-19 affects older people only. Young adults are not invincible, as WHO reported cases of infections being moderately between 10% and 15% for persons below 50 years. There have also been cases of young people in their teens and twenties who have been hospitalized with severe cases of illness from the virus, the majority of them required intensive care units and some even sadly succumbed to the virus. So young people are not invincible to the COVID-19. There are good accounts of people aged 100 years and over who have since been admitted to the hospital and have completely recovered since then. The WHO has advised that healthy people are less likely to suffer serious illness from the pandemic and has encouraged people to stay healthy.
It is important to maintain good nutrition, physical activity, and to stay away from tobacco and alcohol while a patient is in self-quarantine or working from a home. The value of shielding health workers is also emphasized by the WHO. As in past pandemics like Ebola, health workers were greatly affected by the viruses while treating the infected victims. Some of the health workers even succumbed to the infections as well as spreading the viruses to their families. In our area, 10% of the patients in COVID-19 are health staff. They need training and services, including sufficient personal protective gear. Besides, it is also important to consider the people that take care of the elderly people living in-home care facilities as they deal with people who have low immune systems and are prone to illness.
In conclusion, the general public needs to adhere to the government’s directives of staying at home, wearing face masks in public, and frequently sanitizing to minimize the spread of the virus.
References
World Health Organization Coronavirus Disease 2020 Situation Report. Available online: https://www.who. int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200326-sitrep-66-covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=9e5b8b48_2 (accessed on 25 May 2020)
World Health Organization Novel Coronavirus (2020-nCoV), Situation Report 1. 21 January 2020. Available online: https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200121-sitrep-1-2019- ncov.pdf (accessed on 25 May 2020).