Prepare for pandemic, warns WHO
WHO praise for China as its chief says virus peaked
BEIJING/GENEVA/SEOUL: The World Health Organization chief on Monday warned countries to prepare for a “potential pandemic” of new coronavirus, calling the sudden increase in cases in Iran, Italy and South Korea “deeply concerning”.
But Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said a WHO joint mission to China that concluded on Monday found that the virus there “peaked” between January 23 and February 2 “and has been declining steadily since then”.
“The past few weeks has demonstrated just how quickly a new virus can spread around the world and cause widespread fear and disruption,” he said.
China’s bold actions in the epicentre of Hubei province and its capital Wuhan have probably prevented hundreds of thousands of cases, Bruce Aylward, leader of the WHO delegation said in Beijing on Monday, adding that the global community was not ready with either the mindset or material to act in the same way. The remarks from WHO come amid a rise in Covid-19 cases and deaths in Italy, South Korea and Iran amid and fears that the outbreak could escalate into a pandemic.
The virus is new but it is capable of causing great impact on public health, the economy, and society, Alyward said, adding it is neither SARS nor the influenza.
He said the fundamentals of what China did in Hubei and Guangdong in south China could be applied elsewhere. “This is a dangerous virus and we have to work with experience we have. And this (China) country has demonstrated its measures can work,” he said.
Praising China for being the first line of defence, the WHO expert said other countries should consider similar action to be a second line of defence to prevent spread to low income countries with lower ability to fight it.
The WHO expert sidestepped a question on the initial information on the outbreak in Wuhan being covered up. “Our purpose was to find what works. Awareness is a common problem in many outbreaks… we didn’t look at that factor. ”
“What worries me is, have other countries learned lessons from China’s experience? President Xi (Jinping) himself said mistakes were made...there is a recognition that the human cost is unacceptable. We all have to look at our systems because none of them as fast enough,” he said.
“This virus is sneaky and tricky. We needed to fight while we learned, while we improved. This is what we lacked in the early stages,” Chinese national health commission’s Liang Wanning said.
“The situation in Wuhan is still severe. We are in a critical moment whether we can win this war. Severe and critical cases/ confirmed cases, if they continue to drop, that would be good news,” Liang said.
In a rare decision, China on Monday officially delayed the Two Sessions, the country’s annual Parliament and biggest political event, because of the outbreak and further restricted the trading and consumption of wild animal meat. New dates for the Parliament session will be announced later.