UN health agency settles in for long fight with virus

4 passengers dead aboard cruise ship anchored off Panama

GENEVA, March 28, (AP): The World Health Organization’s emergencies chief said Friday that widespread testing for the new coronavirus is crucial and countries should not be faulted for reporting higher numbers of cases. He also appealed for a shift toward public health strategies that allow us “to live with this virus” until a vaccine emerges.

The comments from Dr Michael Ryan suggested a change in mindset at WHO and the UN health agency’s increased resignation that the virus first identified in China late last year will be around for a while. The number of people infected worldwide exceeded 585,000 by Friday night.

“At this point, no one can predict how long this epidemic is going to last,” Ryan said during a WHO news conference. “We are entering and moving to an uncertain future. ... Many countries around the world are just beginning the cycle of this epidemic.”

For weeks, WHO officials spoke during daily briefings in Geneva of a “window of opportunity” to try to contain the spread of the virus. But lately there have been indications that the containment window has closed.

Ryan called Friday for moving from measures designed to “take the heat” out of the pandemic to ones aimed at “much more precise targets, directed targets, that will allow us, at the very least, to live with this virus until we can develop a vaccine to get rid of it.” A vaccine against the virus isn’t expected for at least 12 to 18 months.

The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death.

WHO officials continue to caution that much remains unknown about the virus including why people who aren’t elderly or have preexisting conditions become seriously ill with COVID-19.

Ryan said 10% to 15% percent of people under age 50 will have a “moderate to severe infection.”

At the same time, WHO officials emphasized the importance of testing widely for the virus, saying it would enable health officials to get a better grasp on outbreaks even if increasing numbers of people testing positive may stir unease.

“We should not punish countries for getting larger numbers,” Ryan said. “If we create a situation where we overreact to the daily number, then there’s a disincentive to actually test.”

“Having a larger number means I know where the virus is better,” he said.

With the governments in many countries imposing nationwide lockdowns, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus acknowledged that limits on travel or leaving the house “influences individual human rights.”

“But this is a choice that we should make,” he said. “Meaning, in order to have collective security, to be a better society and to fight the virus, we give our freedom, you know, for a while.”

Four passengers have died aboard a cruise ship now anchored off the coast of Panama and two people aboard the ship have tested positive for the coronavirus, the cruise line said Friday, with hundreds of passengers unsure how long they will remain at sea.

Holland America Line said in a post on its Facebook page that more than 130 people aboard the Zaandam had reported flu-like symptoms.

“Holland America Line can confirm that four older guests have passed away on Zaandam,” the statement said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with their families and we are doing everything we can to support them during this difficult time.” It did not identify the cause of death.

The ship, which had been turned away from other ports and now is being denied passage through the Panama Canal, was receiving medical supplies and medical personnel from another Holland America ship, the Rotterdam, and the company planned to begin transferring healthy passengers to that ship.

“Priority for the first guests to transfer will be given to those on Zaandam with inside staterooms and who are over 70,” the statement said. There are 1,243 guests and 586 crew on board the Zaandam.

Late Friday, the Panama Maritime Authority said in a statement that 401 passengers not showing symptoms of the virus would be transferred to the Rotterdam. It said medical supplies were being delivered to the Zaandam until midnight and then the shipments would resume Saturday.

The authority said the bodies of the virus victims would remain on the Zaandam until the liner arrives at its final destination.

The Panama Maritime Authority “deeply regrets these deaths, as well as the complex situation the passengers and crew of the Zaandam cruiser go through,” the statement said. The authority’s administrator,

Noriel Araúz, said earlier in the day that no one on either ship would be allowed ashore in Panama, which the Health Ministry said had 786 coronavirus cases, with 14 deaths, as of Friday.