FILE – People wearing face masks attend a music concert in Barcelona, Spain, on March 27, 2021. With one of the highest vaccination rates in Europe and its most pandemic-hit economies, the Spanish government is laying the groundwork to approach the virus in much the same way countries deal with flu or measles. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, file)
MADRID — When the coronavirus pandemic was first declared, Spaniards were ordered to stay at home for more than three months. For weeks they were not even allowed to go outside to exercise. Children were banned from playgrounds and the economy was brought to a virtual standstill.
But officials credited the draconian measures with preventing a complete collapse of the healthcare system. Lives were saved, they argued.
Now, almost two years later, Spain is preparing to roll out another COVID-19 playbook. With one of the highest vaccination rates in Europe and its most pandemic-stricken economies, the government is laying the groundwork to treat the next outbreak of infection not as an emergency, but as a disease that’s here to stay. Similar moves are being considered in neighboring Portugal and the UK.
The idea is to switch from crisis mode to control mode and tackle the virus the same way countries deal with flu or measles. This means accepting the occurrence of infections and providing special care to people at risk and patients with complications.
Spain’s centre-left Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wants the European Union to consider similar changes after surges in the Omicron variant showed the disease was becoming less deadly.
“What we are saying is that in the coming months and years we must think without hesitation and according to the knowledge of science, how to manage the pandemic with different parameters,” he said on Monday.
Sánchez said the changes shouldn’t happen before the end of the Omicron surge, but officials need to start shaping the post-pandemic world now: “We’re doing our homework and anticipating scenarios.”
The World Health Organization has said it’s too early to consider an immediate postponement. The organization does not have clearly defined criteria for declaring COVID-19 an endemic disease, but its experts have previously said this will happen when the virus is more predictable and there are no ongoing outbreaks.
“It’s a more subjective judgment because it’s not just about the number of cases. It’s about the severity and the impact,” said Dr. Michael Ryan, WHO’s head of emergencies.
dr Anthony Fauci, the US’s leading infectious disease physician, told a panel at the World Economic Forum on Monday that COVID-19 cannot be considered endemic until it descends to “a level that is not disruptive to society.”
The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control has advised countries to move to more routine management of COVID-19 after the acute phase of the pandemic has passed. The agency said in a statement that alongside Spain, other EU countries want to adopt a “longer-term, more sustainable surveillance approach”.
Just over 80% of Spain’s population has received two doses of the vaccine and authorities are focusing on boosting adult immunity with third doses.
Vaccination-acquired immunity coupled with widespread infection offers an opportunity to focus prevention efforts, testing and disease-tracking resources on intermediate- to high-risk groups, said Dr. Salvador Trenche, Director of the Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine. which has led to calls for a new endemic response.
COVID-19 “needs to be treated like any other disease,” Trenche told The Associated Press, adding that “normalized attention” from health professionals would help reduce delays in treating problems unrelated to the coronavirus related.
The public must also come to terms with the notion that some deaths from COVID-19 “will be inevitable,” Tranche said.
“We can’t do with the sixth wave what we did with the first: the model has to change if we want to get different results,” he said.
Spain’s health ministry said it was too early to share plans drafted by its experts and advisers, but the agency confirmed one proposal is to follow an existing model of “guardian surveillance” currently in use in the EU used to monitor influenza.
The strategy has been dubbed “flu-isation” of COVID-19 by Spanish media, although officials say systems for influenza will need to be significantly adapted to the coronavirus.
For now, discussion of moving to an endemic approach is limited to wealthy nations that can afford to talk about the worst of the pandemic in the past tense. Their access to vaccines and robust public health systems are the envy of developing countries.
It’s also not clear how an endemic strategy would coexist with the “zero Covid” approach being pursued by China and other Asian countries, and how that would affect international travel.
Many countries, overwhelmed by the record number of Omicron cases, are already forgoing massive testing and shortening quarantine periods, especially for workers who only show cold-like symptoms. Since the beginning of the year, classes in Spanish schools have only been stopped in the event of major outbreaks, not as was the case with the first reported case.
In Portugal, which has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa declared in a New Year’s address that the country had “entered an endemic phase”. But the debate over specific measures ended as the spread soon accelerated to record levels – nearly 44,000 new cases in 24 hours were reported on Tuesday.
However, hospitalizations and deaths in the vaccinated world are proportionately much lower than in previous waves.
In the UK, mask-wearing in public places and COVID-19 passports will be dropped on January 26, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Wednesday, saying the latest wave has “peaked nationally”.
The requirement for infected people to isolate for five full days remains in place, but Johnson said he will seek to scrap it in the coming weeks if virus data continues to improve. Official statistics put the proportion of the UK population who have developed antibodies to COVID-19, either through infection or vaccination, at 95%.
“As COVID becomes endemic, we must replace legal requirements with advice and guidance, and urge people with the virus to be careful and considerate of others,” Johnson said.
For some other European governments, the idea of normalizing COVID-19 is at odds with their efforts to encourage vaccination of reluctant groups.
In Germany, where less than 73% of the population has received two doses and infection rates are hitting new records almost daily, comparisons with Spain or other countries are dismissed.
“We still have too many unvaccinated people, especially among our elderly fellow citizens,” Health Ministry spokesman Andreas Deffner said on Monday.
Italy extends compulsory vaccination to all citizens aged 50 and over and imposes fines of up to 1,500 euros for unvaccinated people who show up at work. Italians must also be fully vaccinated to access public transport, planes, gyms, hotels and trade fairs.
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Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Maria Cheng, Danica Kirka and Sylvia Hui in London, Raf Casert in Brussels, Colleen Barry in Milan, Italy, and Geir Moulson in Berlin.
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Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic
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