Could you handle another 2020?

Is COVID-19 past experience is a good indicator of what the future holds?

The global economy was and is beset by an extraordinary shock that has devastated economic growth under the coronavirus pandemic. The prolonged control of people movement, social distancing and lockdowns have produced the global economic decline, disrupted the demand and supply chains, reduced the availability of general and specialised workforce, not to mention significant job losses and unemployment. 

Could you handle another 2020? 

IMF’s World Economic Outlook report 2021 stated that the COVID-19 caused cumulative loss to the global economy over two years (2020–21) was over $12 trillion. 

Congressional Research Service Report (Congressional Research Service, 2021) identified aspects through which the global economy was affected, for example the decline in the supply chains, reduced demand for goods in general, including imports, and reduced trade with exporters. 

In an attempt to understand the historic negative effect of COVID-19 on the global economy, we can summarise impact into the following: 

Personal buying Behaviour

The leading component for the decline in GDP due to COVID-19 is the downward curve of people’s consumption behaviour. The pandemic badly damaged economic growth due to higher production costs, low labour supply, and reduced consumption. Most people have reduced their spending as they are worried about their household finances.

Exports and International Travel

Global Economic Prospects by World Bank (World Bank Group, 2020) stated that the COVID-19 pandemic had affected international travel and global value chains, which caused global trade to decline by 13 percent in 2020, which is more than that it did during the global financial crisis and World War II.

Impact on Investment and Capital Stock Prices

There has been a significant hit to investments and stock prices. Globally, stock markets have crashed dramatically and lost 15 trillion of the value of high-risk assets, and economists are anticipating a worse economic crisis than the great recession of 2008–2009 (The economics of COVID-19Kraus et al., 2020).

Impact on Government Spending

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, local governments saw significant increases to their spending for health, care and safety (preventative and PPE) services. Governments were also required to offer financial safety nets for the unemployment and social security benefit schemes.

How Prepared is your Business or Organisation to deal with the next ‘vaccine escape’ variant this winter?

The new Omicron BA.5 variant will probably spread quickly and scientists expect it will soon be responsible for most COVID-19 infections. Experts at Germany's top health agency (Robert Koch Institute - RKI), have warned that infections will likely increase this summer; in June 2022 they reported that the omicron sub variant BA.5 is growing faster than all other variants and concluded the two could soon be responsible for the majority of the country's cases. Do Existing Vaccines Protect against Omicron BA.5 infections? 

The protection provided by existing COVID-19 vaccines or indeed natural immunity from past COVID-19 infection slowly decreases over time as antibody levels drop. That means no one is fully protected from BA.5 — new infections are possible despite vaccination or if you have been infected in the past and occur more frequently than with past variants.

Other Effective Control Measures - Is it time to bolster your Business Preparedness with a rapid and effective Biosecurity layer?

What if we took lessons learned over the last two years together with the benefit of science and new technologies? What if we focused on breaking the chain of transmission rather than isolating and treating the infected? Could the answer be to create a ‘Biosecure environment’?

A Biosecure Environment could be an office building, a factory, an education campus, a healthcare facility, or even a cruise liner – anywhere where this is a defined secure perimeter with some form of access control system in place. 

In these example facilities, once you have a method to readily test and identify Covid-19 cases upon entry, you can at least ensure that on that time of testing, the users of that facility have all given negative test results. Conversely, those who have provided positive results are able to remove themselves from their audience, prevent and reduce spread and offers the opportunity for those cases to seek treatment to stimulate faster recovery from the disease.

Up until now, the concept of a biosecure facility has not been possible – COVID-19 testing methods simply haven’t been accurate, rapid or non-intrusive enough to manage the large numbers of test throughput needed, so If tests are too slow or miss positive cases, then they have little impact on limiting the spread. Breaking the chains of transmission is the goal.

Your Biosecure Facility provided by Virolens

Virolens is designed for mass screening and immediate diagnostics at the point-of-care. Unparalleled for speed and accuracy, Virolens uses the power of physics over chemistry to detect COVID-19 in 20 seconds and does not require a laboratory.  Virolens is very accurate offering 97.3% sensitivity, 99.7% specificity, 96.4% PPV, and 99.9% NPV

Other tests, including PCR and antigen, rely on chemistry to detect COVID-19. Virolens is also more environmentally friendly because it does not use toxic chemicals and the test cartridges are 100% recyclable.

Inside the Virolens machine is a holographic microscope designed to look at nanoscale structures. When a sample is inserted into the machine, different light waves are projected to create identifiable diffraction patterns. Using artificial intelligence, the machine analyses the sample in 4D and compares it to the unique pattern of the virus, giving a clear positive or negative result. 

Imagine you facility having a simple, accurate and speedy non-intrusive COVID-19 test as a condition of entry? This would simply be an extension to the access control systems to a building. Imagine having a facility that ensures every occupant has tested today for COVID-19 and has given a negative result. It’s simply no enough to rely on vaccinations and boosters, when they do not prevent the spread of the disease. 

A biosecure environment provided by Virolens could be the most effective way to help combat the threat to health and economy that the Omicron BA.5 brings. 

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