Currently reading this article, there is a line,

Yet there was a common thread: making sure the virus had been suppressed to a level low enough that containment was theoretically possible once business as usual resumed. This meant different things in, say, Germany and Denmark, but the goal was the same.

Does the word "thread" here mean the definition given by Merriam Webster's

: a tenuous or feeble support that offers no real security : an extremely uncertain and problematical turn of events

"a life hanging by a thread"

or

obsolete : kind, quality, nature

Thank you for your support in advance.

Currently reading this article, there is a line,

Yet there was a common thread: making sure the virus had been suppressed to a level low enough that containment was theoretically possible once business as usual resumed. This meant different things in, say, Germany and Denmark, but the goal was the same.

Does the word "thread" here mean the definition given by Merriam Webster's

: a tenuous or feeble support that offers no real security : an extremely uncertain and problematical turn of events

"a life hanging by a thread"

or

obsolete : kind, quality, nature

or a literally a thread which turned to mean a "thing" like?

Thread

Thank you for your support in advance.