Europe is “much more risky” for COVID-19 surges than Australia due to colder temperatures and higher population densities

The continent is now fighting an increase in cases as it heads into winter five weeks after Christmas in a few countries that have been forced to re-impose COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine obligations.

The experience is very different from Australia. Australia will relax rules, learn to live with the virus, use suppression strategies for many of its pandemics, and then resume in other parts of the world for the summer.

Professor Robert Buoy, a pediatrician for infectious diseases at the University of Sydney, said that the resurrection of COVID-19 almost two years after the pandemic struck the world “much more endangered Europe than Australia.” He said that there was such a factor.

“First, Europe is much more densely populated, with a much higher population per square meter than Australia,” he told Skynews.com.au.

“Second, viruses hate fever.

“Third, they are heading for winter. Not only do viruses prefer cooler temperatures, but what happens in cool winter weather is that people spend more time indoors in crowded and poorly ventilated areas. It is to spend.

“That is, there is a combination of viruses that prefer cold temperatures, crowded people, and poor ventilation.

“All of this puts Europe at much greater risk than Australia.”

Professor Buoy added that Australia’s precautionary measures (“border closure, good physical distance, and nearly compliant population”) also put Australia in good shape.

He warned that the resurgence seen in Europe may not be able to shake the Australian coast in the same way, but daily increases in infections are inevitable as borders reopen.

“Because the physical distance is relaxed, COVID will inevitably increase. It may not be a big increase, but inevitably we should expect some increase due to a larger social mix. “He said.

“In late summer and fall, we can see a surge in various viruses, including COVID, the flu, and other causes of the common cold.”

Australia is “newly vaccinated” and most of the population has rolled up their sleeves with two vaccinations in the last four months.

“Most of Europe’s protection was done 6-11 months ago,” said Professor Booy.

“Therefore, there is concern that the immune system is a little weakened.”

Professor Dale Godfrey of the University of Melbourne, Doherty Institute’s Immunology Theme Leader, said Australia is “lucky” to have a very high vaccination rate that is still rising.

As of Sunday, 91.5% of people over the age of 16 in Australia had been vaccinated with at least one coronavirus vaccine, and 85.1% had been fully vaccinated.

“Evidence shows that we have the opportunity to get boosters before the start of winter, which should greatly increase our resistance to infection,” said Professor Godfrey, citing data from countries like Israel. I quoted it.

“I think this high immunization rate and availability of booster shots in Australia will minimize the impact by the beginning of winter.

“There may be infections, but the incidence of serious infection-related illnesses and hospitalizations should be lower than in the pre-vaccination stages this year and last year.”

Professor Buoy also advised Australians to bring booster shots forward when qualified.

At the beginning of November, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that Europe and Central Asia are facing a real threat to the resurgence of COVID-19.

“The current pace of communication in 53 countries in the WHO Europe region is a serious concern,” said Dr. Hans Henri P. Kruge, Director of the WHO Europe Region.

“Cases of COVID-19 are approaching record levels again, and more contagious delta variants continue to dominate transmission throughout Europe and Central Asia.”

The Czech Republic and Slovakia have banned unvaccinated residents from hotels, pubs and hair dressings since Monday, the Netherlands and Germany have reinstated the COVID-19 rule, and Austria has reintroduced the blockade.

Germany broke the pandemic record with more than 65,000 COVID-19 cases reported on Thursday.

The number of infections in France on Sunday was 19,749, an increase of 58% from the previous week, 18,883 in Poland, 31% from the previous week, and 9,709 in Italy, an increase from 7,565 in the previous week.