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A year ago, on March 11, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a global pandemic.
As Voice of America correspondent Henry Ridgell reports from London, European countries hoped their well-funded health systems would provide some form of protection, but the continent was hit hard from the start and continues to face high levels of infection.
The city of Codonjo, in northern Italy, still carries the scar of unwanted fame as the epicenter of the first coronavirus epidemic outbreak in Europe.
On February 20 last year, a 38-year-old was hospitalized with respiratory problems. The next day he was diagnosed with coronavirus. Chief physician Francesco Tursi recalls the horror that followed.
“We heard about one, two, three cases and immediately we were filled with patients with serious breathing problems, they could not breathe. We did not even have time to think. This really changed our lives “, says Dr. Tursi.
A few months later, dr. Tursi became infected with the virus and spent a month hospitalized.
As cases multiplied, northern Italy went into isolation. It was a small and belated measure. In the following days, several European countries announced new cases.
By the time the WHO declared a global pandemic on March 11, Spain, France and several other European countries had imposed isolation measures. But Britain resisted by postponing the isolation for another two weeks, against scientific suggestions.
“If we had imposed the isolation measures a week earlier, we would have reduced the death toll by at least half,” said Neil Ferguson, a former scientific adviser to the British government. Britain had the highest number of casualties in Europe during 2020. Its economy was also hit hard – it shrank by almost 10%.
“The UK is a great example of the concept that when you try to choose between public health or the economy, you lose both,” says Dr. Peter Drobac, of Oxford University.
In Turkey, doctors accused the government of hiding the true level of the pandemic as hospitals filled with patients. Russia was also accused of manipulation; doctors said the true death rate was probably three times the official number of 57,000 deaths by 2020.
As isolation measures continued over the summer, governments across Europe injected billions into their economies to protect businesses and jobs. Public debt soared.
But as the bleak year of 2020 drew to a close, science offered hope. Clinical trials have shown that some vaccines offer strong protection against COVID-19. Britain became the first Western country to launch a mass vaccination program.
“We can not underestimate the extent of this – from identifying a new virus and uncovering its genetic code in January 2020, to having a number of safe and extremely effective vaccines 11 months later,” says Dr. Drobac.
The risks still lie ahead. Infections remain high and there are fears of more resistant variants of the virus circulating in Europe.
In Kodonjo, Dr. Tursi continues to treat patients. Like hundreds of thousands of other vanguard workers, he risked his life to help others survive. The pandemic has changed lives in countless ways – and it is not over yet. / Voa /
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