The number of cases of illness with COVID-19 is increasing rapidly, draw the attention of specialists. According to the latest data provided by the INSP, this week there were 70% more cases than last week. The reasons were explained to us by Dr. Emilian Popovici, the vice-president of the Romanian Society of Epidemiology.
The symptoms of COVID infection can be confused with those of a cold. Photo source: archive
The National Institute of Public Health announced that in the week of July 22 – 28, 3,446 new cases of COVID-19 were registered. This number represents a 71% increase over the previous week.
What is the reason for this “semi-wave” of COVID-19? Because, as we know, viruses multiply especially in the cold season. The cold is the favorable environment for their development. However, SARS-CoV-2 is, from this point of view, atypical.
“The number of cases of illness with COVID-19 has increased for a very simple reason: we are in the summer season, a time when people go on holidays and vacations, mobility is very high both in the country and across the border. Some come, some go. Increasing the number of trips, automatically increased the number of contacts and, implicitly, the number of infections”epidemiologist Emilian Popovici explained the recent explosion of illnesses. “People go to terraces, to restaurants, enter and leave hotels and guesthouses, participate in various artistic and cultural events, come into contact with each other. It is natural for them to bring the infection into the country and take it with them further, abroad”. continues the specialist.
With the COVID at the Olympics
Dr. Emilian Popovici has another explanation for the increasing number of illnesses: the number of people tested has also increased. “If we look at the figures of the last few days, the positivity rate, i.e. the percentage of positive tests out of the total number of tests carried out, has increased from 21 to 27%. But if we look at intensive care and hospitalized cases, we see that at the country level there are only 66 hospitalized cases and only eight in therapy. Indeed, the number of infections is higher, it has increased compared to last week, but that is because the number of tests has also increased. And the number of serious cases is very low”.
An increased number of illnesses with COVID-19 are also being registered in other countries, and the recent explosion would have, say British researchers, two major causes: the European Football Championship that has just ended and the Summer Olympic Games in Paris. “There is an increase in the 2024 summer wave, just as we saw in 2021, when there was also a Euro soccer tournament, evidence that this contributed significantly to the spread of infection.” said Professor Mark Woolhouse, an expert in the epidemiology of infectious diseases at the University of Edinburgh and a former adviser to the British government.
How we avoid diseases
Therefore, although we are not facing an alarming growth that will give us shivers, the alarm signal has been raised: we still need to take precautions. “We should follow the same pattern as during the pandemic. The preventive measures are nothing other than those we already know. The mask, when we come into contact with a sick person, who coughs or sneezes. Or when we go to a place where we could get sick: polyclinics, emergency rooms, medical offices, hospitals where there are sick people, etc. But hand washing remains, by far, the most effective method of prevention. We all know: dirty hands transmit germs”.
