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Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director of Doctissimo)
Medical validation:
January 24, 2023
Several countries have decided to treat the coronavirus as the equal of seasonal flu, and no longer as a public health threat. A premature position, according to some experts.
This is great news that stands out in the pandemic landscape. Japan and Israel have announced that they are “downgrading” the coronavirus to treat it like an ordinary virus. The goal? Allow people to (re)live normally.
No more isolation or masks in Japan
In Japan, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida leaked the announcement last Friday.
Concretely, the Japanese government downgrades the disease from class 2 to class 5 and ends the need for infected people and contact cases to self-isolate.
Wearing a mask in outdoor and indoor spaces is also no longer mandatory. Only symptomatic Japanese should continue to wear it indoors.
Measures, which will take effect in the spring.
But to restore a “normal” way of life, the country must first “gradually modify various measures”said the Japanese Prime Minister.
“HASIn order to return to ordinary daily life in Japan while continuing to adapt to life with the coronavirus, we will study concrete measures to gradually move to the next stage.“, he added.
In Israel, test centers close
If the country was the first to embark on a massive vaccination campaign in 2020, it now considers that the coronavirus is no longer a threat. So much so that the free test centers – located all over the country – are closing their doors.
“The usefulness of these centers has diminished. In general, the State of Israel says: we have passed a course. The numbers are fairly stable. We mainly follow indicators such as the number of seriously ill patients in hospitals, which is always between 100 and 150. And that’s been several months. So, for us, today, there is no urgency to test the entire population”underlines Professor Cyrille Cohen, director of the immunotherapy laboratory at Bar-Ilan University, one of the coronavirus specialists in the country.
From January 31, the Covid will therefore be considered an epidemic virus similar to the flu.
In this context, positive individuals will no longer be forced to isolate themselves.
“Excellent news”
For Dr. Kierzek, these two announcements represent “excellent news”.
“This is an example that everyone should follow, even the WHO. We must “trivialize” the Covid-19. This does not mean that there will be no more deaths, nor that there should no longer be epidemiological surveillance. But we have to get out of exceptional management and management by fear“, assures the medical director of Doctissimo.
On this subject, opinions differ. In Davos in particular, where the World Economic Forum was taking place these days, the experts recalled that the pandemic linked to Covid-19 constituted “still a significant risk and did not seem behind us“.
This is why Michelle Williams, dean of faculty at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health, insisted on recalling the importance of vaccination and barrier gestures.