Thread by @GosiaGasperoPhD

Excellent article.
#COVIDzero #ZeroCovid #CovidStop

https://twitter.com/smbilodeau/status/1370395463627771906

“Public Health Director Horacio Arruda has said that vaccination will make COVID-19 less severe and that we could tolerate up to four to six times more cases if they were less severe. Yet if there is more community transmission, there will be more variants, more long-term COVID..

“...and the possibility of more long-term effects among the younger population.
...

“... So far, the authorities have aimed to slow down the epidemic rather than to prevent it, to reduce the surges instead of suppressing all outbreaks. They have been playing it it by ear, with changing and seemingly arbitrary rules that have been confusing and disconcerting.
...

..We can get out of this slump if we change our approach, by combining the vaccination campaign with a “COVID-zero” elimination strategy inspired by the ones used in NZ and certain other countries. It’s about reducing SARS-CoV-2 and its variants’ spread to a strict minimum.

How?

“..First, by early detection of cases. Second, by tracing potential contacts quickly. Third, by putting into quarantine, strictly and immediately, the group of people in question (building, school, town or region, depending on the case).
...

“... Lockdown must be strict (everything closed) but of limited duration. Social life and daily activities can then resume their normal course quickly.
...

“..To put this pandemic behind us, we need a more aggressive and proactive public health approach, with better targeted, quicker and stricter lockdowns in order for them to be shorter, and to protect public health in a more effective manner. “

#COVIDzero #ZeroCovidCanada

A French version of this article:
plus.lapresse.ca/screens/54b1d2…