{"id":33161,"date":"2020-12-28T14:55:53","date_gmt":"2020-12-28T13:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goinginternational.eu\/wp\/de\/?p=33161"},"modified":"2021-01-11T11:08:48","modified_gmt":"2021-01-11T10:08:48","slug":"health-at-a-glance-2020-public-health-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goinginternational.eu\/wp\/de\/health-at-a-glance-2020-public-health-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Health at a Glance 2020: Public Health Issues Part 1
How resilient have European health systems been to the COVID\u201119 crisis?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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This contribution provides an initial assessment of the impact of COVID\u201119 and the
resilience of European health systems to the pandemic, bearing in mind that the
pandemic is ongoing and so any definitive assessment would be premature.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Health\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Since late 2019, the COVID\u201119 outbreak has spread to become the most serious pandemic in a<\/span>
century. European countries have been severely affected, with over 7 million cases and 220 000<\/span>
deaths reported across EU countries, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom as of<\/span>
31 October 2020. As the pandemic continues through 2020 and beyond, the eventual death toll will<\/span>
rise.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tContainment and Mitigation strategies<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t

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From the onset of the pandemic until the end of October 2020, non-medical containment and<\/span>
mitigation actions <\/span>were the only policy options countries had to prevent the spread of COVID\u201119.<\/span><\/p>

The majority of European countries implemented similar containment and mitigation <\/span>measures during the first wave of the pandemic.<\/span>
Containment and mitigation strategies aim to minimise the risk of transmission of infections and<\/span>
slow the spread of the virus. Without any intervention, the spread of a viral infectious disease generally<\/span>
follows an S-shaped curve. That is, infections grow slowly at the beginning of the outbreak, accelerate<\/span>
exponentially in its central phase when a critical mass of people are infected and many others are still<\/span>
susceptible, and slow in its final phase when enough people are immune (either through natural<\/span>
infection or vaccination). The central phase of this cycle corresponds to the peak of the infection. The<\/span>
different policy options described in this section aimed to prevent the COVID\u201119 outbreak from<\/span>
reaching its exponential acceleration phase, or to at least curb it to alleviate the burden on health care<\/span>
systems (Figure 1.7).<\/span><\/p>

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Containment and mitigation strategies can be grouped into three broad policy categories with social distancing measures implemented in almost all European countries, but with<\/span><\/strong>
different levels of stringency<\/span><\/strong><\/p>