European victory over Covid-19 Is several years away

BAD NEWS: Lead Chinese 

Virologist Says European 

Victory Over Covid-19 Is 

Several Years Away

FortRuss,

23 March, 2020

One of China’s leading virologists, Zhang Wenhong, head of the Shanghai COVID-19 expert group, said European countries should not expect a quick victory over coronavirus.

During a videoconference organized by the Chinese Consulate General in Dusseldorf, Germany, the expert expressed the opinion that Western countries may require up to two years for this.

“It will be perfectly normal for the virus to appear and disappear, and it will last one or two years,” Zhang said.

“I can say: forget that the pandemic will end in Europe in the near future,” the Chinese virologist specified his pessimistic forecast.

The scientist has no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic will drag on for some time and will depend only on the general efforts to contain it when it succeeds in taking control: this summer or the next.

“To solve the problem in a short period of time, measures must be extremely radical,” said Zhang Wenhong.

According to him, a pandemic could be defeated relatively quickly only if it were possible to stop all movement around the world for four weeks. However, he immediately added that it was “difficult for him to even imagine” that this was possible in the modern world.

Zhang Wenhong explained that China was helped in the fight against coronavirus by the fact that almost all institutions, enterprises and educational institutions were closed in the country at the very beginning of the epidemic due to the “Spring Festival”.

Coronavirus in Europe

As of Monday morning, March 23,

59,138 patients with coronavirus were detected in Italy,

29 909 in Spain,

24 873 people were infected in Germany,

16 246 people were sick in France,

7 724 in Switzerland,

5 745 in the UK ,

4,217 infected were detected in the Netherlands,

3,627 in Austria,

3,401 in Belgium

and less than three thousand infected in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

The largest number of deaths from coronavirus also in Italy – 5 476 people, 1 813 people died from COVID-19 in Spain, 674 people – in France, 281 – in the UK, 179 – in the Netherlands, 98 – in Switzerland, 94 patients died from complications in Germany, 75 in Belgium, 21 in Sweden.