As the COVID-19 and its newest variant, Omicron, have spread globally since the beginning of 2020, the amount of cases and deaths do not show any signs of stopping as they continue to rise daily. The total number of cases is 444 million, with approximately 6 million deaths as of March 5, 2022. COVID-19 vaccines have been necessary in recent months in order to combat this virus.
Countries have been researching means to slow and, eventually, stop the virus’s spread in their own regions. Throughout these turbulent months, some countries have fared better than others in preventing the virus. However, how exactly did different countries handle the pandemic?
1. Australia
As of March 5, 2022, Australia had had a number of 3.34 million people being infected and 5,402 deaths, with the daily average being 24,869 cases. In comparison to the rest of the world, the 5,403 deaths in Australia were still relatively low. Australia became an exemplar throughout the catastrophic months of dealing with COVID-19 due to its government’s willingness to promptly close borders, push immunizations, and enforce a protracted lockdown. However, the Omicron’s emergence altered everything.
Australia had been facing the many problems that Omicron had caused, such as testing systems suddenly becoming overloaded, employers having to take time off due to illness or to maintain isolation requirements, and certain goods being in limited supply. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also classifies Australia as a country with a level four COVID-19 level, with the first being low (fewer than 50 cases per 100,000 population) and the fourth being very high (more than 500 cases per 100,000 population).
2. Brazil
According to the CDC, Brazil’s COVID-19 had reached the fourth level of the four levels. Brazil was facing 29 million cases and 652,000 deaths as of March 5, 2022, with a daily average of 42,626 cases. Being the country with the second highest number of deaths, Brazil has taken little actions to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro had slammed the use of masks and governors who implement regional lockdowns. According to Our World in Data, 70% of Brazilians had received both doses, compared to 63% in the United States. According to government figures, just 40 million people out of 214 million received booster shots. According to Alberto Chebabo, the Vice President of the Brazilian Society of Infectious Disease Specialists, hospital infirmaries were seeing the highest demand, rather than intensive-care units, as was the case last year. Brazil is not a safe place to visit, as cases have been on the rise in the country and not many Brazilians have received the vaccines. However, if traveling to Brazil is necessary, make sure you are fully vaccinated and up to date on your COVID-19 immunizations.
3. The United Kingdom (U.K.)
On March 5, 2022, the U.K. had reported a number of 19.2 million cases, with 162,000 deaths and the daily average cases being approximately 60,000. In the early days of COVID-19, the British government’s failure to enforce a lockdown had cost them the opportunity to halt the virus and avert many fatalities. However, with the new variant Omicron being milder, the government is under pressure not to impose any further limitations. “The way forward for the country as a whole is to continue with the path that we are on,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson told broadcasters. “Of course we will keep all measures under review, but the mixture of things that we are doing at the moment is I think the right one.”
Despite the fact that the number of cases is escalating, Johnson has generally avoided adopting additional measures and establishing rule changes in England, which makes up 80% of the U.K. population. On the other hand, Britain was the first to “roll out a clinically approved Covid vaccine roll out a clinically approved Covid vaccine.” As of March 5, 2022, the U.K. had seen a significant percentage of its population receive the vaccines as well as booster shots, with 91.6% receiving the first dose, 85.3% receiving the second, and 66.6% receiving the booster shots.The CDC, however, continues to classify the U.K. as a level four nation with a very high level of COVID-19.
4. South Africa
South Africa had reported a number of 3.69 million cases and 99,265 deaths on March 9, 2022, with a daily average of 1,552 cases. Six months ago when South Africa was still confronted with the Delta variant, the hospitals in the country “were overwhelmed, with intensive care unit beds and oxygen running out.” However, the surge of the Omicron variant did not overflow the hospitals with infected patients, and few of them needed oxygen. “The vaccines, combined with high rates of previous infection, have boosted South Africa’s collective immunity to the coronavirus,” the CBS News reported. “I’m highly optimistic that we have reached a turning point in this pandemic,” Professor Shabir Madhi, a vaccine expert at Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand, said. “I can’t see us revisiting what we experienced during the course of the first three waves in South Africa.” Although the appearance of Omicron had a small negative effect on South Africa, the CDC still classifies South Africa as a COVID-19 level three country.
5. New Zealand
As of the end of 2021, despite facing its most difficult pandemic months, New Zealand emerged with some of the finest health results in the world. “We know too from the past two years that a good health response is also the best economic response – and that gives our country great reason to celebrate,” says Chris Hipkins, the COVID-19 response minister.
Nonetheless, the appearance of the Omicron variant prompted the number of cases in New Zealand to surge once more. According to the CDC‘s website, the nation is classified as level three, indicating that it has a high level of COVID-19. As of March 5, 2022, New Zealand reported 223,000 cases and 65 deaths as well as 21,000 cases on daily average; the statistics are still modest in comparison to the rest of the world.
However, as Omicron surfaced, New Zealand saw an increase in the number of people who had been infected with Omicron arriving in the nation and being placed in obligatory quarantine. While the government of New Zealand was considering reopening the country’s borders, the mandated isolation had put a burden on the quarantine system, causing the government to prohibit entrance for returning citizens, infuriating many individuals who wished to return to New Zealand.
Overall each country handled the pandemic in a different way.
Be First to Comment