GENEVA (Reuters) – Countries around the world must immediately prepare for an epidemic caused by the new coronavirus to respond quickly to its arrival, an expert from the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.
“Think the virus will appear tomorrow,” advised Dr Bruce Aylward, head of the WHO-China joint mission on the epidemic, speaking to the press upon his return to Geneva after a two-week stay in Beijing. and in three provinces, including Hubei, the main focus of the epidemic.
“If you don’t think that way, you won’t be ready,” he said. “Get organized, use the time you are trying to save as it will save lives.”
China’s “extraordinary mobilization” has shown that an aggressive public health policy, particularly with large-scale quarantines, can stop the spread of the disease.
“China knows how to keep people alive,” he said. “It’s amazing. Everyone you talk to has a sense of responsibility, they are mobilized as if it were a war against this virus.”
Asked if all the cases had been identified, the expert replied: “We are probably not missing a huge amount (of cases).”
Asked about the 3,000 infections among healthcare workers, Bruce Aylward said they had not been in the workplace. “Wherever we went, it was a top priority (…).”
“Are they taking this seriously? Absolutely. Are they good at it? Absolutely. Are the numbers going down? Absolutely, in terms of health worker infections, and that’s good news.” , he added.
(Stephanie Nebehay and Michael Shields, French version Jean-Philippe Lefief)
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