BERLIN – Governments
battling a virus that has crossed borders with breathtaking swiftness pinned
their hopes Tuesday on tests, technology and a coordinated approach to ease the
tight social-distancing restrictions that have slowed the pandemic but
strangled the global economy.
While the European Union looked into creating a COVID-19 smartphone app that could
function across the bloc, governors on both U.S. coasts pledged to work
together as they planned an end to the confinement of millions. The main
concern is to avoid new coronavirus hot spots and flare-ups of infections. But
trying to build such infrastructure while still in mid-crisis during the
pandemic is proving difficult.
In India, the government on Tuesday extended the world’s largest lockdown on
1.3 billion people for two more weeks, until May 3 for most of the country, as
its caseload crossed 10,000.
China faced a new flare-up along its remote northern border with Russia, far
from the original epicenter of Wuhan, which has all but declared victory in its
battle against the pandemic. That vast border has been sealed and emergency
medical units have rushed to the area to prevent travelers from bringing the
virus back from overseas.
New infections appear to have leveled off in much of Asia and Europe, including
Italy, France, Spain.
Even in New York —
where reported coronavirus deaths passed 10,000 on Monday — Gov. Andrew Cuomo
declared the “worst is over if we can continue to be smart.” More
than 23,000 people have died of the virus in the United States overall, with
582,000 confirmed infections, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
With social distancing and lockdowns in place across a large portion of the
world, grim projections that the virus that would spread with equal ferocity to
other corners have yet to materialize. But without widespread antibody tests to
determine how many people are immune to the virus, governments fear that
relaxing social distancing could lead to new outbreaks.
Germany’s foreign minister, Heiko Maas, called Tuesday for a single smartphone
app to be used across the 27-nation EU to help countries coordinate when and
how to relax their pandemic lockdown measures.
“It’s important we don’t end up with a patchwork of 27 corona apps and 27
data protection regimes, but coordinate as best as possible,” he told
Germany’s Funke media group.
Maas said a contract tracing app already being jointly developed by several
countries showed that the EU “doesn’t have to copy the Big Brother methods
of authoritarian states” but can instead safeguard personal privacy and
public health at the same time.
The head of the Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s disease control center, said
exchanging information between countries and institutions is key to combating
the pandemic. Lothar Wieler said Tuesday his group is in constant contact with
others to share which measures are effective in preventing the virus from
spreading, how to test for infection, which vaccine studies to fund and how
best to protect vulnerable populations.
Apple and Google last week announced a separate joint effort to help public
health agencies worldwide leverage smartphones by using Bluetooth wireless
technology to trace the contacts of those infected so as to slow the spread of
the virus. That will run on iPhones and Android phones alike. The apps would
gather a record of other phones when they came into close proximity.
In China, where new reported virus cases have dwindled, life is ruled by a
green symbol on a smartphone screen that says a user is symptom-free and can
board a subway, check into a hotel or just enter Wuhan, the city of 11 million
people where the pandemic began in December.
South Korea and Israel have both aggressively used smartphone data to track the
movements of virus carriers. But in general, epidemiologists say contact
tracing can only be effective with widely available testing, which has been
difficult even in wealthy countries such as the United States and Britain.
Experts say the infection rate still remains relatively low in areas of the
developing world that have poor or nonexistent health care infrastructure and
far fewer resources to trace the contacts of coronavirus patients.
The rapid spread of the coronavirus beyond cities to more rural areas often
depends on travel and social connections, said Dr. Mike Ryan, the World Health
Organization’s emergencies chief. That could explain why Germany and
Switzerland, with their world-class train systems, have over 155,000 infections
between them.
But he noted that rural areas often have less sophisticated health surveillance
systems to pick up potential disease clusters,,
“Is it that it’s not there, or is it that we’re not detecting the disease
when it is there?” he asked.
Johnston, the Imperial College professor, said he worried the virus might take
off across Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia. He also expressed concern
about Russia.
Despite the absence of a coordinated exit strategy, in some European countries,
officials pointed to positive signs as they began prepping to reopen largely
shuttered economies and industries.
Italy’s day-to-day increase in infections was one of the lowest in weeks,
bolstering a generally downward trend. Slightly eased restrictions were about
to take effect in some sectors of the country, such as allowing stores selling
baby necessities to reopen.
In hard-hit Spain, workers returned Monday to some factory and construction
jobs. Retail stores and services were still closed and the government required
office workers to keep working from home.
In the United States, governors in the Northeast and along the West Coast
announced separate state compacts to coordinate reopenings.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would announce a detailed plan Tuesday for
lifting virus restrictions. He cautioned it would use “science to guide
our decision-making and not political pressure.”
“The house is still on fire,” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said.
“We still have to put the fire out … (but we need) to make sure this
doesn’t reignite.”
His state is in a coalition with Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New
York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island while the governors of California, Oregon
and Washington announced a similar plan.
President Donald Trump pushed back against the governors, claiming “the
federal government has absolute power” over easing the restrictions if it
chooses. The Constitution, however, largely gives states the authority to
regulate their own affairs.
More than 1.9 million infections have been reported and over 119,000 people
have died worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University. The figures
understates the true size of the pandemic, due to limited testing, uneven
counting of the dead and unreliable figures from some governments.
Source: Voice of America