Relaxing COVID-19 protocols to hurt business, health in long run: scholars-Xinhua

Relaxing COVID-19 protocols to hurt business, health in long run: scholars

Source: Xinhua

Editor: huaxia

2022-09-07 15:16:17

A man takes a ferry in Sydney, Australia, March 30, 2022. (Xinhua/Bai Xuefei)

SYDNEY, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- As Australia cut its COVID-19 isolation from seven days to five days and dumped mask mandates on domestic flights, health experts warned that the change may bring about long-term health effects and disrupt business even more.

"First and foremost, there is no scientific basis for the change," said Nancy Baxter, head of the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne, and Raina MacIntyre, professor of global Biosecurity at the University of New South Wales, in a recent analysis published by the media network the Conversation.

The two experts pointed out that COVID-19 is the third most common killer of Australians, resulting in 11,746 deaths so far this year.

"And there is mounting evidence survivors of COVID face the risk of long-term health effects on the lungs, heart, brain and immune system," they said.

Noting that allowing increased transmission will impact the economy by resulting in higher numbers of people affected by long COVID-19, the experts called for "a layered strategy," which includes improved booster rates, masks in public indoor settings and maintaining the current isolation period, rather than "rapidly pushing towards a 'business-as-usual' pandemic." 

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