Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Makassed General Hospital, Beirut, Lebanon.
Division of Infectious Diseases, Hôtel Dieu de France, Beirut, Lebanon.
Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2022 Apr;16(2):718-725. doi: 10.1017/dmp.2020.349. Epub 2020 Sep 10.
Between December 31, 2019, and August 30, 2020 (date of this article), the novel coronavirus and its corresponding infection, coronavirus disease (COVID-19), increased to more than 25 million cases, and 843 158 deaths have been registered. Countries around the world have been affected, albeit in different levels and intensities.Despite implementations of preventive public health measures, most countries are seriously preparing for 1 or more waves. The threat of this surge is likely to persist until herd immunity is acquired either by natural infection or through vaccination. However, given the time frame needed for herd immunity to occur and the low probability that a vaccine will be available on a global scale by the coming fall and winter seasons, contingency preparedness plans should be established and put in place for the coming days or months. These plans should help mitigate new peaks of the pandemic while relaxing the social isolation rules, patient, public health, and hospital levels.In this article, we discuss recommendations that practicing physicians and public health agencies should provide to individuals, especially those at risk of infection, to take and implement pre-emptive measures in anticipation of the potential next peak of the pandemic.
自 2019 年 12 月 31 日至 2020 年 8 月 30 日（本文撰写日期），新型冠状病毒及其引发的相关感染——新冠肺炎，已确诊超过 2500 万例，死亡人数超过 84.3158 万。全球各国均受到影响，只是程度和强度不同。尽管各国采取了预防公共卫生措施，但大多数国家仍在为 1 波或多波疫情做好认真准备。这种疫情反弹的威胁可能会持续到通过自然感染或疫苗接种获得群体免疫为止。然而，鉴于获得群体免疫所需的时间框架，以及在即将到来的秋冬季节，疫苗在全球范围内广泛使用的可能性较低，应该制定并实施应急准备计划，以应对未来几天或几个月的情况。这些计划应有助于减轻大流行的新高峰，同时放宽社会隔离规则、保护患者、公共卫生和医院。在本文中，我们讨论了执业医师和公共卫生机构应向个人，特别是那些有感染风险的人提供的建议，以便他们采取并实施先发制人的措施，以应对大流行的潜在下一个高峰。
