The Covid-19 has plagued the news for many months, and our morale with it. Still, there is good news in the development of the pandemic. What to find the smile behind our masks.
1.The countries affected first are starting to live normally again
As you will recall, what in December 2019 was called "Sars-CoV-2" left from central China, precisely, from Wuhan, where the first cases appear. The epidemic then spread rapidly and massively to surrounding countries. This is particularly the case for South Korea, which is seen as a successful model for containing the epidemic and is among the first countries to be able to live an almost normal life again. Once the epidemic was finally contained, South Korea and China proved the effectiveness of simple protection methods: screening, early detection of outbreaks of infection, strict quarantine measures, wearing a protective mask. Today, in Wuhan city, nightlife was able to pick up again: Vice media recently published a series of photos taken at nightclubs in the city in August. Enough to let us think that one day not so long ago, we will all dance again.
2. It is relatively easy to protect yourself against the virus
We now know that the disease is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Although the rate of contagion and transmission is high, the virus itself is easy to avoid. Washing hands with lukewarm water and soap, according to official guidelines, will remove traces of it. In practice, this means washing your hands for 30 seconds, rubbing the fingernails, fingertips, palms and the outside of the hands, knuckles and wrists. Then dry your hands with a clean towel or in the open air. A hydro-alcoholic solution can also be used on non-soiled hands. And to disinfect surfaces, simply clean them for one minute, with a solution of 62-71% alcohol, 0.5% hydrogen peroxide or 0.1% bleach.
3. Covid-19 is harmless to most people
The rate of positive people has increased significantly since the start of the school year: this is what we see with the increase in the number of screening tests. The good news here is that 80% of the time, the infection is mild. Only about 2% of infections are fatal, and the rest of infected patients recover after a few days. Be careful, however, many infected people show great fatigue, sometimes persisting for weeks after the contagion period.
4. Patient care has improved rapidly, and it continues
We remember the terrible images of emergency services overwhelmed by people seriously affected by Covid-19. Doctor Arnaud Fontanet, epidemiologist, declared in August: "The good news is that the six months of experience of treating patients has enabled us, thanks to anticoagulants, thanks to corticosteroid therapy, to do much better. […] We roughly halve the risk of go to intensive care, so it is a very big step forward […] because it will help relieve resuscitation and prevent deaths. " We applaud this info.
.5. Children under 20 are hardly affected
Only 3% of cases are in young people under 20, and mortality in people under 40 is only 0.2%. In children, the symptoms are extremely mild, and they do not contaminate each other very much. As the Ministry of Health said following the relaxation of the health protocol in schools: "Young children are little at risk of serious forms and not very active in the chain of transmission of the coronavirus, the risk of transmission exists mainly from adult to adult, from adult to child but rarely from child to adult and from child to child ". Be careful, however, young people are contagious factors for their elders, and must therefore remain very careful. Which, we will have understood, does not prevent optimism!