טעקנאַלאַדזשיקאַל סאַלושאַנז זענען די שליסל צו טאַקינג די צווייט כוואַליע פון ​​קאָוויד -19 אין אייראָפּע

Europe is suffering a brutal צווייטע כוואַליע of the coronavirus pandemic, with a number of major economies back in lockdown after a brief reprieve over the summer. Last week, Italy joined a growing list of countries with more than a million recorded cases of the virus, Poland’s National Stadium has been transformed into a field hospital, and Spain has declared a national state of emergency that may extend well into 2021. The total number of cases on the continent now exceeds 14 million, and hospital systems are stretched near to their breaking point.

Slivers of good news, however, have begun to emerge. Several hard-hit countries may be experiencing the turning of the tide: though infection rates remain elevated, Germany has noted the “ערשטע סימנים” that the curve is flattening, while the virus’ reproduction rate (R0) recently dropped below 1 in France. Even in Belgium, which was recently so badly-off that coronavirus-positive nurses in Liège were געבעטן to continue working as long as they were asymptomatic, the situation is slowly stabilizing after daily new infections dropped by 40 percent week-on-week.

With the approaching holiday season heightening pressure on policymakers to re-open economies by the end of the year, ensuring that the right tools are in place will prove essential if a devastating third wave is to be prevented. That said, the roll-out of reliable COVID-19 testing regimes has already proved far more שווער than health authorities may have anticipated, and a persistent onslaught of virus-related scams has thrown a further wrench into public health authorities’ attempts to control the deadly virus’s spread.

One such scandal recently סערפיסט from within Europe’s decimated travel industry, where a criminal gang was found to be selling fake negative COVID-19 tests to passengers departing from Paris Charles de Gaulle airport amid tighter immigration rules. The counterfeit certificates bore the names of real Parisian medical laboratories, and the scheme was only exposed after a passenger bound for Ethiopia was found to be carrying a false certificate. If Europe is to safely emerge from this latest lockdown, the independent and trustworthy verification of health information will need to be the cornerstone of any new policy.

More secure and more convenient COVID test results

Fortunately, a number of promising high-tech solutions have already popped up. Swiss company SICPA’s CERTUS MyHealthPass, for example, uses an existing blockchain-based technology to allow the universal verification of health credentials, and is currently being trialled to help both maritime crews and airline passengers.

The CERTUS solution will be a particularly welcome development for seafarers, who have struggled to go about their usual duties since the beginning of the pandemic. Many national authorities have געפרעגט the validity of seafarers’ COVID-19 tests and taken an inordinately long time to approve their health documents, leaving seafarers often left stranded onboard months after their scheduled disembarkation. Moreover, the rejection of health and travel documents often prevents potential replacements from boarding these same vessels, damaging the mental wellbeing of the workers in limbo and bringing vital transnational operations to a grinding halt.

אַדווערטייזמאַנט

The airline industry, unsurprisingly, is ראַנגלערייַ with a similar challenge. Countries are increasingly requiring negative PCR tests for entry—while some are already פּלאַנירונג for how to integrate coronavirus vaccination certificates into their border control procedures—but scandals like the false COVID test ring discovered at Charles de Gaulle airport have ratcheted up the need for internationally-recognised procedures like the technological solution offered by MyHealthPass. The scheme is capable of authenticating both paper documents and digital information so as to guarantee the validity of WHO-approved COVID-19 test results. Seafarers, airline staff and international travellers can then carry their authenticated digital health pass on their smartphones, allowing the re-opening of essential international services in the short-term and helping national and local authorities better anticipate and prepare for future outbreaks.

Self-isolation still falling short

In addition to ensuring that easily-verified coronavirus tests & other health information can help open borders and allow normal economic activity to resume as soon as possible, governments should also be using this time to resolve the missing links that have so far caused testing and isolation strategies to fall through. If rapid and widespread COVID-19 testing is finally beginning to אַראָפּנעמען, bolstered by more accurate בלוט טעסץ to detect past infection, authorities must also be doing more to encourage—and compensate—populations which may have been exposed to the disease to self-isolate so as to allow these developments to adequately take hold.

In the months since the heady days of summer, a clearer image of Europe’s failures to control the pandemic has indeed begun to emerge. In the UK, where COVID-19 cases have exceeded 1.3 million, less than איין פינפט of people who reported coronavirus symptoms complied with national self-isolation regulations, and authorities איבערגעגעבן a paltry handful of fines for quarantine violations when returning from a high-risk area.

Here again, countries with high marks handling the coronavirus outbreak have turned to technological solutions to both ease the burden of complying with self-isolation requirements and ensure compliance with rules in force. Taiwan, for example, has emerged as the international gold standard for COVID-19 control measures. After closing international borders and regulating travel early, Taiwan has successfully מיינטיינד a rigorous regime of contact tracing and technology-enhanced קאַראַנטין which has helped the island nation keep cases and fatalities low. In particular, the Pacific country adeptly implanted an “electronic fence system”, which uses cell phone location data to ensure that quarantined individuals stay at home. Technology also provided a solution for the practical and mental health concerns of those in quarantine, from offering easy food delivery options to a chatbot developed with popular messaging app LINE.

European authorities failed over the summer to implement the technological solutions they needed to stop a second wave in its tracks. This second round of lockdowns has given them a fresh chance to construct the pillars of a comprehensive and secure strategy for testing and quarantining which could stave off a third wave of the virus.

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