WHO says joint China mission to start coronavirus investigations this weekend
15 February, 2020
A World Health Organization-led mission to China begins its outbreak investigation this weekend and will focus on the way the new coronavirus is spreading and the severe nature of the condition, the WHO's director-general said on Friday (Feb 14).
The joint team, made up of 12 international members and their 12 Chinese counterparts, will seek more details on how, where and when the a lot more than 1,700 health employees infected up to now contracted the brand new virus, WHO officials said.
"We expect the full team to touch down over the weekend," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, speaking from Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, told reporters in Geneva.
"The goal of the joint mission is to rapidly inform another steps in the COVID-19 response and preparedness activities in China and globally," he said, referring to the medical name for the acute respiratory disease due to the virus.
"Particular attention will be paid to understanding transmission of the virus, the severe nature of disease and the impact of ongoing response measures."
Dr Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO health emergencies programme, said that he believed the WHO-led team would include US health officials, but gave no details.
THE UNITED STATES Centers for Disease Control (CDC), whose technical specialists are highly-regarded, has voiced interest in engaging.
Ryan, asked about the Tokyo Olympic Games scheduled for July, said that the Who was simply in regular touch with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and other organisers regarding major events.
Japan has been among the most-affected countries outside China.
"We've not offered advice to the IOC for the Olympics one way or the other, and neither would we. It isn't the role of WHO to call off or not call off any event," Ryan said.
WHO's role was to provide technical advice to greatly help organisers conduct a thorough risk assessment around an event, he said. "In fact it is your choice of hosting countries and the organising agencies to create that decision," he added.
Chinese authorities reported 5,090 new cases in mainland China on Friday, including a lot more than 120 deaths, taking the full total number of infected to 63,851, and the amount of deaths from COVID-19 to at least one 1,380.
China in addition has released data on infections among health workers, which stands at 1,716 reported cases and six deaths.
Ryan said infections among healthcare staff may actually have peaked in another or 4th week of January. There have been a "rapid fall-off" in such instances in the last two weeks, which can reflect better training or protection, he said.
Dr Sylvie Briand, WHO director of global infectious hazard preparedness, said such infections weren't unusual in outbreaks but that it had been seeking additional information from Chinese authorities.
"It is very important to understand if it happened in the emergency ward or if it has happened if they were treating patients or somewhere else within the hospital facility so that we can also target implementation of corrective measures," she said.
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