On March 11, 2022, two years have passed since the The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of the SARS CoV-2 virus a pandemic. That day, 7,728 new cases were registered, the majority in Italy. While the United States identified 365, which brings the total accumulated there to 1,147. China’s official total at this stage exceeded 80,000 and since then the global situation has become more complicated. While today the panorama is different thanks to the decline in Covid-19 cases. Does it mean that the health crisis is over?
Consequences of the health emergency
Throughout this period, one of the most serious pandemics of the modern era. Current estimates indicate that a total of 455 million people have been infected and just over six million have died.
On the other hand, collateral damage must be considered, such as a economic recession that remains and seems to have no end. In Mexico alone, the loss of more than a million formal jobs was reported. Gradually some have recovered but the damage is done.
As a consequence, a radical change has also been seen in the performance of daily activities. The clearest example can be seen in digitization acceleration. Now it is becoming more and more common to carry out activities with the support of technology. Not only does it offer facilities but it is a safe mode.
The clearest sample can be observed within the field of health. The medical consultations online have seen an exponential increase and so the trend continues. More and more patients prefer this format because it is not necessary to go to a doctor’s office but the service can be provided remotely.
On the other hand, according to Our World in Data, the weekly average of new global cases of Covid-19 rose close to 3.5 million at the end of January. The figure represents more than four times the previous peak reached in April 2021.
Due to the appearance of Omicron variant, many countries experienced a swell that was more like a vertical wall than a steady rise as seen in previous waves. For this reason, the beginning of this year was the critical moment in most nations.
The highest point of the pandemic
In that vein, on January 24, 2022, the historical record was set with just over 3.4 million new cases for the same day. Although since then there has been a noticeable improvement.
One of the main culprits is vaccination because until now it remains the best strategy to avoid serious stages of the disease. The progress remains stable and has been essential to achieve a notable decrease in Covid-19 cases.
But although it can be thought that the critical stage of the pandemic is over, the World Health Organization (WHO) has emphasized that protection measures should not be relaxed in a rush. Otherwise it can be counterproductive.
A latent risk is the appearance of new variants of danger that manage to reduce the effectiveness of current vaccines. If that happens, there could be a setback and make everything advanced useless.