In US, COVID-19 warnings grow more dire; more public gatherings banned.
US official warns of death rate 10 times that of flu
WHO Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic as the global death toll rose above 4,300 and the number of confirmed cases exceeded 121,000.
By reversing course and using the charged word “pandemic” that it had previously shied away from, the U.N. health agency sought to shock lethargic countries into pulling out all the stops.
“We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear,” Tedros said. “We cannot say this loudly enough, or clearly enough, or often enough: All countries can still change the course of this pandemic.”
The U.S. death toll climbed to 37, and the number of U.S. cases rolled past 1,000, federal health officials said. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield told a congressional committee the virus has spread to at least 38 states.
“Right now the epicenter – the new China – is Europe,” Redfield said. “And there’s a lot of people coming back and forth from Europe that are now starting to seed these communities.”
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1,464 points, bringing it 20% below its record set last month and putting it in what Wall Street calls a “bear market.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told lawmakers Wednesday that the U.S. has yet to see the worst of the new outbreak. He explained that any time there is an outbreak with enough cases of “community spread,” which means the source of the infection is unknown, “you’re not going to be able to effectively and efficiently contain it.”
“Bottom line: It’s going to get worse,” he said.
As for how much worse, Fauci said that would depend on the ability of the U.S. to curtail the influx of travelers carrying the disease and state and community efforts to contain the outbreak. He said if mild cases of the virus are counted, the mortality rate is probably about 1% – “roughly 10 times more lethal than the seasonal flu.”
Meanwhile, the NCAA announced its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments will be held as scheduled next week, but without fans present.
Attendance at the NCAA Tournament events will be limited to essential staff and family members, NCAA president Mark Emmert said.
The outbreak is the first strain of coronavirus to draw a pandemic designation, Tedros said. For weeks he balked at calling it a pandemic, and Wednesday he noted that 81 nations have reported no cases of the virus. Fifty-seven others have reported 10 cases or fewer. More than 90% of confirmed cases are in four countries, and two of them – China and South Korea – are seeing cases decline.
Containment remains as important as mass treatment of the infection, Tedros stressed.