This is part of some news from my country. (in Portuguese. Google translator was able to craft a good translation).
As far as my English knowledge can tell, Google translator was able to craft a good translation.
https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/equilibrio...emia.shtml
Brazil has record Covid drop in major cities since the beginning of the pandemic
In October, new infections fell in 80% of municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants
"This is the great impact of a population with high vaccination coverage and recently vaccinated, as we now know that vaccines partially lose their protection over the months, although protection for severe cases, hospitalizations and deaths is longer lasting ", explains Renato Kfouri, pediatrician and director of SBim (Brazilian Society of Immunizations).
Despite having started the vaccination campaign against Covid about a month after countries like the United Kingdom and Germany, Brazil managed to advance and surpassed the mark of 70% of the population with at least one dose in the beginning of October.
Today, about 75% of the Brazilian population has received at least one dose of immunizing agents and 58% have already taken both doses or a single dose (*). In other countries, there is some difficulty in getting people who oppose vaccination to join the campaign.
In the US, where there is low adherence to vaccines in some states, vaccination coverage is not homogeneous, reaching around 40% of the fully vaccinated population in places like West Virginia and Wyoming. it is also important”, adds Kfouri.
An upsurge in the pandemic is also observed in Europe, with some countries like the Netherlands enacting new lockdowns. The European continent accounted for more than half of the new Covid cases in the world at the end of October and saw a sudden rise in new infections and hospitalizations by Covid after the relaxation of protective measures.
"This is a problem and we must be attentive because, despite the favorable epidemiological moment, it is important not to loosen the measures", emphasizes the epidemiologist and professor at the Faculty of Medicine of USP Paulo Lotufo.
Maintaining care, such as wearing masks, keeping people apart and preferably going to outdoor or well-ventilated spaces are measures that help to reduce the circulation of the virus.
"Vaccination plays a very important role in the slowdown of the pandemic in the country, but it alone is not our only weapon", stresses Denise Garrett, epidemiologist and vice president of the Sabin Institute of Vaccines (USA).
"In Brazil, we still don't have a vaccine coverage rate sufficient to explain, by itself, the complete slowdown of the pandemic", she says.
For specialists, almost two years after the start of the pandemic, one thing has already become clear: the movements of the disease came like waves, with the increase in cases at times of high susceptibility of populations or by a low number of people already immunized, or even for an escape of protection against new variants. Therefore, it is difficult to predict the future.
"We have seen that countries that have improved with vaccination and other control measures, when they relaxed, had problems again. Therefore, at this time of transition, it is important to be as cautious as possible to keep these levels [of new cases] low "says Garrett.
For Lotufo, "epidemiologically speaking", it is difficult to say when the pandemic will end. "But I believe it is moving faster than we thought. We are near the end of the beginning of the pandemic, but not yet the beginning of the end."
(*) "single dose" refers to the vaccine that only needs one dose (Janssen). In Brazil, the following vaccines are being applied:
Coronavac (Sinovac/Butantan - inactivated virus), Janssen (adenovirus vectors), Astrazeneca/Oxford (viral vector) and Pfizer BioNTech (RNA). Sputnik V (viral vector) and Covaxin (instigated virus) are authorized for exceptional import.