Coronavirus ‘10 times deadlier than swine flu’

Covid-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, is officially 10 times deadlier than the H1N1 swine flu strain that ripped across much of the world in 2009, the World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed yesterday.

The only way to truly halt the spread is a vaccine, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a briefing from Geneva.

More than 1.8 million people have been infected so far worldwide, and at least 115,000 have died.

‘‘Evidence from several countries is giving us a clearer picture about this virus, how it behaves, how to stop it and how to treat it,’’ Tedros said. ‘‘We know that Covid-19 spreads fast, and we know that it is deadly – 10 times deadlier than the 2009 flu pandemic.’’ While swine flu, as it was popularly known, killed 18,500 people, the true toll may have been closer to between 151,700 and 575,400, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported, citing The Lancet.

‘‘We know that the virus can spread more easily in crowded environments like nursing homes,’’ Tedros continued. ‘‘We know that early case finding, testing, isolating, caring for every case, and tracing every contact is essential for stopping transmission.’’

Pointing out that in some countries cases are doubling every three to four days, Tedros said the disease accelerates fast but ‘‘decelerates much more slowly.’’

‘‘In other words, the way down is much slower than the way up,’’ he said. ‘‘That means control measures must be lifted slowly and with control.’’ Tedros cautioned that restarting the shutdown portions of the economy in the US and other countries whose leaders have been eager to loosen restrictions could prove deadly. He also exhorted everyone around the world to work together, as several development ministers from the United Kingdom, Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Germany, Norway and Sweden had done in a recent joint editorial.

‘‘They said that tackling this disease together is our only option,’’ Tedros said. ‘‘I couldn’t agree more. The way forward is solidarity – solidarity at the national level and solidarity at the global level.’’

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump claimed the ‘‘total’’ authority yesterday to decide how and when to reopen the economy after weeks of tough social distancing guidelines aimed at fighting the new coronavirus. But governors from both parties were quick to push back, noting they have the primary constitutional responsibility for ensuring public safety in their states and would decide when it’s safe to begin a return to normal operations.

Democratic leaders in the Northeast and along the West Coast announced separate state compacts to co-ordinate their efforts to scale back stay-at-home orders or reopen businesses on their own timetables, even as Trump argued it was his call.

‘‘When somebody is president of the United States, the authority is total,’’ Trump said at Monday’s White House coronavirus briefing. ‘‘The governors know that.’’

But he would not offer specifics about the source of that claim, which governors asserted was a vast power grab, or his plan to reopen the economy. The president’s guidelines have little force. Governors and local leaders have issued orders that carry fines or other penalties, and in some jurisdictions extend into the early summer.

‘‘We’re going to write up papers on this,’’ Trump said, brushing aside questions about his claim of absolute authority to order states to reopen, adding, ‘‘The governors need us one way or the other.’’ – TNS/AP