The new coronavirus – the SARS-CoV-2 – it is ten times more lethal than the virus responsible for influenza A (H1N1), which appeared in late March 2009 in Mexico, World Health Organization (WHO) officials said on Monday, calling for a “slow” suspension of world confinement.
“The data collected in several countries gives us a clearer picture of this virus, of its behavior, of how to contain it. We know that the COVID-19 spreads quickly and we know it is lethal: ten times more than the virus responsible for the 2009 flu pandemic, “declared WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a virtual press conference from Geneva, a message that was republished later on Twitter.
In an intervention in which he did not speak of numbers or dramatize the pandemic, the official was also not opposed to the easing of restrictions that some countries have already announced, and even said that the WHO publishes on Tuesday a update of the strategy to fight the new coronavirus, which includes the criteria that should be considered by countries that admit to ease the restrictions.
Relax these restrictions only when, he said, the transmission of the virus is controlled, that the national health system has the capacity to detect, test, isolate and treat new cases, that the risks of contagion are minimized, and that preventive measures are implemented in the places schools, and other places with a concentration of people.
And then, added Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, that the risks of importing the virus are controlled and that the population is committed and aware of the new rules.
In 2009, influenza A was responsible for a pandemic originating in Mexico that spread to virtually every country in the world. Initially referred to as swine flu, influenza A is caused by the H1N1 virus, an infectious agent that killed 18,500 people in 2009 and 2010 and led WHO to declare a pandemic. The medical journal Lancet estimates that this number is higher, between 151,700 and 575,400 fatality.
“Safe and effective” vaccine
For WHO, a “safe and effective” vaccine is urgently needed to completely stop the spread of COVID-19, which has already killed around 115,000 people worldwide.
“The era of globalization means that the risk that COVID-19 will be reintroduced and resurface may continue. In the end, the production and distribution of a safe and effective vaccine will be necessary to stop the spread entirely,” said the director-general. WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
In the absence of a vaccine against the new coronavirus, WHO urges countries to launch widespread diagnostic campaigns among suspected cases, quarantine them and keep their contacts under surveillance.
The WHO director recommended that countries find “a balance between measures to combat mortality from COVID-19 and other diseases due to overburdened health systems and the socio-economic impact” of the pandemic.
It also reiterated that the containment measures will be progressively suspended. “We know that in some countries, cases have doubled every 3 or 4 days. While COVID-19 spreads very quickly, it decreases much more slowly,” commented Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “This means that the measures must be suspended slowly and with control,” he insisted.
See below the interactive map with COVID-19 coronavirus cases worldwide:
If you cannot see the map developed by Johns Hopkins University, proceed to this link.
THE pandemic caused by the new coronavirus it has caused at least 114,539 deaths worldwide, since it appeared in China in December. More than 1,853,300 cases of infection have been officially diagnosed in 193 countries and territories since the epidemic began.
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