World Health Organization holds a news conference on the coronavirus outbreak – 3/5/2020

hello guys, good afternoon everyone, thank you very much for joining us for this press

conference

from the WTO headquarters in Geneva, as information providers, you play a vital role in responding to copy 19, fighting rumors and misinformation is a vital part of the battle against this virus we rely on you to make sure people have accurate information about the threat they face and how to protect themselves and others now, according to the figures, there are now a total of 95 thousand 265 reported cases of kovat 19

world

wide and 3281 days ago. 24 hours China reported 143 cases most cases continue to be reported in Hebei province and eight provinces have not reported any cases in the last 14 days outside China 2,500 2055 cases were reported in 33 countries about 80 percent of those cases continue to come from only three In the countries where we see encouraging signs in the Republic of Korea, the number of new reported cases appears to be declining and the cases that are being reported are mainly identified from known clusters, although some countries are reporting a large number of cases. 115 countries have not reported any. cases 21 countries have reported only one case and five countries that had reported cases have not reported new cases in the last 14 days the experience of these countries and China continues to demonstrate that this is not a one-way street, this epidemic can be pushed but only with a collective, coordinated and comprehensive approach that involves the entire government machinery.

We call on all countries to act with speed, scale and clear determination, although we continue to see the majority of cases in a handful of countries that We are deeply concerned by the increasing number of countries reporting cases, especially those with weaker

health

. However, this epidemic is a threat to all rich and poor countries and, as we have said before, even high-income countries should expect surprises, the solution is aggressive preparation. We are concerned that some countries have not taken this seriously enough or have decided there is nothing they can do. We are concerned that in some countries the level of political commitment and the actions that demonstrate that commitment do not match the level of threat we all face this is not a drill this is not the time to give up this is not the time to make excuses this is the time to do everything possible so that countries have been planning scenarios like this for decades now is the time to act on those plans these are plants that start with leadership from the top coordinating every part of the government, not just the Ministry From Health, security, diplomacy, finance, trade, transportation, business information and more, the whole government must be involved, we need a whole of government approach, so activate your emergency plans.

Through that whole-of-government approach educate your public so people know what the symptoms are and know how to protect themselves and others increase your testing capacity prepare your hospitals ensure essential supplies are available train your

health

care workers If countries act aggressively to isolate and treat cases and trace every contact, they can change the trajectory of this epidemic if we take the approach that there is nothing we can do. which quickly becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. our hands whu-oh has published step-by-step guidelines for countries to develop their national action plans according to eight key areas supported by detailed technical guidance.

We call on all countries to accelerate those plans and we stand ready to work with them. To this end, more funding is being made available to support countries that need it and that have plans in place, as you know, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have made funds available to stabilize health systems and mitigate the consequences of the epidemic. consequences of the epidemic with a special focus on allowing access to critical supplies and equipment. I also had a very fruitful conversation with the president of the African Development Bank. This is funding that is now available to countries that need it in line with strategic preparedness and response requirements. planning These funds are essential to support the response now, but also for long-term preparedness, although copied 19 poses a serious threat now, it is absolutely essential that countries do not miss this opportunity to strengthen their preparedness system.

We know that people are afraid and that is normal and appropriate. that fear can be managed and moderated with accurate information today doublet Joe has launched a new social media campaign called be ready for kovat 19 urging people to be safe, smart and informed if you are feeling overwhelmed by fear, please contact those around you, find out what Your community's emergency response plans are how you fit in and how you can help. There is still a lot we don't know, but we learn more every day and work around the clock to fill the gaps in our knowledge. how deadly this virus will be will depend not only on the virus itself but on how you respond to it this is a serious disease it is not fatal for most people but it can still kill we are all responsible for reducing our own risk of infection and if we are infected to reduce our risk of infecting others.

There is something we can all do to protect vulnerable people in our communities. That is why we continue talking about solidarity. This is not just a threat to individual people or individual countries. We are all in this. together and only together we can save lives thank you very much dr. Tetris and apologies for the problems we are having with the sound. I hope that those watching us on Twitter and online and bookmarking can hear us very well and will hopefully be able to ask questions that remind everyone before we start. questions to ask just one, we'll start with Katrine and then thank you and you can press the little yes, thank you, yes, so the question about so we are as we mentioned earlier, we know a dog in Hong Kong who has initially tested positive for four

coronavirus

es.

These are weakly positive samples that come from the dog. The dog is fine. We understand that he has no symptoms. He's an older dog that we know of, but he's just a dog so far, so we're working with him. Hong Kong authorities we are working with our FAO colleagues and oh heyyy, we are working with Hong Kong partners who are looking at these pets that have been in the homes of people who have been infected with the kovat ID code 19 excuse For me, We only know of this one animal that tested positive and is doing well, so in terms of what this means for transmission, we don't think it's a major driver of transmission, we have no evidence of transmission from humans. to dog or from dog to human, but again, it's just one example of this and of course it deserves much more study, but we are working with partners who can help us address this unusual issue in emerging disease

outbreak

s.

We found that animals may be transient hosts or may be involved in Sarah and MERS. We had similar problems so it's always a question with an emerging disease and we come back to the core question about our animals closely associated with the spread of this disease and the answer is no, in this case this dog is the victim more than others and We need to establish quite clearly what role animals might play in further transmission, but that is unknown, but it is not an unusual or unprecedented finding, it occurs regularly with emerging diseases. thank you very much for giving me dr.

After mentioning that there are countries that are not taking this very seriously and that or other countries said that there is nothing to do, could you mention those countries and very, very quickly, if you can clarify if you have any evidence that the virus from the corner? it's seasonal thank you so the question is is this virus seasonal so we've only known about these fires for about eight weeks now you know starting at the end of December and so far we're in March so we don't know much about anything. what this virus will do over the course of a season, and so we've had some questions before about what these fires will do in different climates and different temperatures, we have no reason to believe that this virus would behave differently in different temperatures. , so we want aggressive action in all countries to make sure that transmission is prevented and that it is taken seriously in all countries, but this is something that will be of interest.

In the northern hemisphere we have the flu season that was ending. pretty soon and in the southern hemisphere we will start the flu season so it will be interesting to see what will happen in the northern hemisphere in the southern hemisphere, but to look at seasonality you need to look at the patterns over time and we do that. We need some of that time to be able to see what happens, so it's important that we look for cases aggressively so that we can understand widespread infection and how the behavior of the virus in different populations is driven by factors in the virus. ability to survive in the environment, but it is also driven by human factors which are the coming together of humans and influenza and other respiratory diseases can spread efficiently in winter, not necessarily because of the temperature but because humans come together in environments closed and, therefore, the transmission.

There are more facilities, so in this particular case we have seen this disease in several different climates. Singapore has a very hot and humid climate and the spread of the disease is under control, so we will have to wait and see. Yes, thanks. A good number of countries that have left this epidemic in the hands of the Ministry of Health, the Minister of Health and the health emergency stations, we are saying that is wrong, it needs a full government approach and I don't have the list now, but it is a long list and that is why my statement today focused on advising all countries on how to activate the whole of government approach so that all sectors of government are involved and this should be led by the principal head of state or head of government or the second person who has the mandate to coordinate all sectors, but the government alone cannot defeat this virus, in addition to the government approach as a whole, the focus must be on mobilizing everyone, all citizens, so that take care of themselves as well as others and to make significant progress in the fight. and we say that it is everyone's business and that is how it should be, but there are a significant number of countries that are not mobilizing the entire government.

I can give you the list next time, but I don't have the list now, thank you, so we have There are some audio issues here, so I hope we have a clean audio version available after the press

conference

for them and I can see on social media that some people can't or we can't hear clearly from the beginning. There will be an audio file and we apologize once again, Charcot, please, our colleagues, our office. Republic of Korea, obviously, the country is right in the heart of the epidemic zone and in the region, so there are risks there, but so far we have no reports. of the issues that we are supplying, making the supplies available, as I think the colleagues in China are also available and are ready to provide technical assistance as any country would like, so it is very, very important that countries like the DPRK are well prepared, their systems are well prepared and we are ready to go in at any time if there is a report of a case from the country and we had a very good conversation with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea and she expressed his willingness and willingness to help in any way possible if there is a need or support that North Korea requests for Jamy, that has changed please and then we will try to get some questions online, we are trying to work out the conclusion please Good afternoon, geniuses, introduce Dr.

Martin, a Harvard epidemiologist, was quoted yesterday in The New Yorker as saying that between 40 and 70% of the

world

's five billion adults could at some point trace the

coronavirus

. I guess he just wanted to know how it's really so terrible from his perspective and just with that in mind, could you also tell us what you know most about asymptomatic transmission and whether or not the surfaces could be Jamie? Yeah, I mean, we've had these numbers almost every week for the last eight weeks and we need to, as I've always said, take into account each prediction, we need to know what data is based on this is usually based on modeling data based ​​in certain assumptions about transmission and about our north and, oh, and some assumptions about control measures are not and you can certainly model with control measures or model without control measures, as wellI would like to see the data and see what that prediction is based on.

We will listen to all the good science having said that there are obvious real things happening in the real world that contradict If we look at China today, 20 provinces in China have lowered their public health emergency risk level today. There are twenty or thirty-one who actually did the opposite. They have gone from red to yellow or from yellow to green. That's blowing up. From that prediction I am not saying which one is correct, but I am telling you that in the real world today China is returning to grapes in the 11 provinces of China that today went green, which is its lowest level of risk in the five levels of risk on January 29 all provinces in China were at risk level 1 the highest possible risk red red all of China was red, so we hope that today there will be only four cases of our yesterday, the last 24 hours only four cases of 19 confirmed covert infection outside of Whoen Bay were actually from China, most of the cases outside of ube in China yesterday came from other countries, so when I look at what is happening in the real world and then I look at the predictions , I need to look, we have to look at both. what is happening in Singapore and the Director General is stated in a speech, this is not a drill that we must fight against, we must fight now because our predictions will come true if we do nothing, so today we have options, yes some Countries are stepping up and resorting to facing the fire and we need all countries to do so right now.

The second part of that question is the question about asymptomatic transmission and the role of surfaces, so we know that this is a respiratory pathogen and it spreads through droplets, so these droplets that come out of our mouth and nose , if we call, sneeze, they will move some distance and settle on surfaces, and there are currently some experimental studies being done that look at how long these viruses will survive on different types of surfaces and Some preliminary results seem to indicate that this virus behaves in a way similar to the SARS coronavirus, but those viruses can be inactivated with disinfectants, so cleaning surfaces can eliminate those viruses and that is important, the role of asymptomatic transmission.

I understand why this. it's a very important question it's a very important question for us we also know that this kovat 19 infection causes a wide range of symptoms, including people who do not develop symptoms, what we understand is that contact tracing is so strong. In some countries, it is okay for those who have not yet developed symptoms to be identified by PCR by being PCR positive, so these are pre-symptomatic people, so it takes a few days before they develop symptoms. Now the question is whether those people can transmit or not. For other people, we know that's possible, but we don't think it's a major transmission factor and the reason we know that is because if we look at actual epidemics and how these epidemics are developing, if they were a major transmission factor . would have caused a much larger number of cases, the big question we have now is whether serology is needed and looking at how many people have been infected overall and how many people are truly asymptomatic, that is, how many people have been infected, but do not develop symptoms and those studies are starting now.

There are serial ajik assays that are being used right now. We are advocating for zero population-based surveys so that we can have a better understanding of what proportion of the population has evidence of infection being detected through antibodies, but we do not believe that symptomatic transmission is a major driver of transmission. . Its still early. This

outbreak

is still a few weeks away. Every day we learn something new about this virus that can change every day. statistically everything we say here, but based on the evidence, we are an evidence-based

organization

, we take the evidence that we receive from the countries, we analyze all the scientific articles that are published and we analyze the evidence at the moment and what we know based on the evidence that a symptomatic transmission is not an important factor of transmission, the DJ has talked about the time that passed, that was the purpose of the joint international team of WH or Gore joining our Chinese College. was to do exactly that less than the lessons learned and let me be clear and I've been at this a long time, no one has responded perfectly to an epidemic, no one has responded in perfect time with the perfect response, this is the real world in which we live.

We live in every emergency response that is plagued with missed opportunities and unfortunate delays and sometimes decisions that need to be made. Unlimited data that subsequently results. You look back and think you know. What would happen if we knew that? Now what we knew then. I could have done something differently, so we have to be very careful and, on the one hand, learn the lessons and, on the other hand, not say that exactly what is happening in China has to now happen exactly the same everywhere else. The question is one of the lessons. and the lessons that I think we've learned from Singapore, China, to look at your problem, understand where there are sporadic cases, understand where there are clusters, understand where there is community transmission, adapt your response to those needs, distribute your resources according to priority , be persistent. consistent be coordinators, we come together, these are the things we need to see the coherence of command control coordination and that the Director General is not speaking with a whole-of-government approach community, society, public sector, private sector and government coming together to work together and in weeks and it has been shown that it can be reversed in weeks if that is what people are willing to do in the DGA set many times there are no guarantees with that approach there are no guarantees that that can be achieved , but at least that will significantly slow down the spread of this virus by allowing our health systems to catch up and I think you've all seen the health systems, even some health systems with a very small number of cases have already had problems to deal with the small number of cases so we need to strengthen our health systems and one of the ways to do that is to slow the spread of this disease so containment and control measures slow down the disease but it is really important Let's not turn this into China. about everything and someone else is wrong about everything or everyone else is right and customers there has been too much of this on both sides we need to learn the lessons that have been offered move forward because each new context is different what we will do in country X No It will be exactly the same as what you do in the country.

And because the context is different, the evolution is different, but there are wonderful lessons that we can learn from China. Yeah, I just wanted to say that one of the things we've learned is that fundamentals work. the fundamentals of Public Health work the fundamentals of identifying your case is identifying your context I am an epidemiologist this is epidemiology at its core you-you-you need to look for your cases aggressively you need to find all those contacts and find the contacts you need to mobilize your population, one of the things that moved me the most, if I could say so, in China was the absolute drive of every person we met, every person in the population knew their role in this outbreak. what they had to do, they knew how they had to protect themselves, how they could protect their families and what they had to do collectively to control this, we've said it before, it's not like that just because you have cases, doesn't mean you're going to having clusters doesn't mean you're going to have big outbreaks doesn't mean it's going to get out of control, we've seen it not just in China, we've seen these fundamentals being used in Singapore. used in Vietnam is being used in many countries and they are reducing it and it all comes down to the fundamental fundamental public health measures and that is something that all countries can do.

Thanks Maria and thanks Mike. Just wanted to add. There is a common factor for all countries that we call political commitment or political intervention, as you know, political intervention is like a surgical intervention, it brings a paradigm and meaning if the highest level of government, the head of state or the head of government, begins to lead and coordinate all the sectors that contribute a qualitative change in the way we respond to the epidemic and that can be done by any country in the world that can bring a new paradigm in each and every one of the countries, that is why In my statement today we focus on all governments. approach no government no country has an excuse because each and every country has a government and that is what we are asking to take it to a higher level this does not depend only on the health ministers this is the responsibility of the head of state the head of government and it must be coordinated from above and all sectors must be involved, this virus is touching everything in the country, it will do so in those countries that are not there, it is not there, so if it is going to touch everything, if it is going to take over politics, if it is going to touch the social fabric of the country, if it is going to touch the economy, then no sector is immune or intact, that is why we say that we have to raise it and then political commitment is at the center. political intervention is at the center because that is the surgical intervention that brings the paradigm and you know, I was encouraged to receive a call from President Sebastián Piñera of Chile, his own initiative calls and discusses what the situation is worldwide and in his own corner too, and you know. exchanging ideas about how we can really beat this virus and not only did we have a very good discussion this was the day before yesterday it was President Sebastián Piñera but today with the Prime Minister of Sweden another excellent discussion about the global situation about the importance of the entire government approach by the way he had just come out of a meeting with his cabinet discussing this issue mobilizing all sectors when I say there is nothing I can comment on that they are taking the right approach and I told you before after our visit to Beijing and see China's approach and President Xi leading that and also in the US the president deceives himself and also the regular coordination the appointment of the vice president, these are the approaches that we say are correct and these are the approaches that we say that they are going to mobilize the entire government, but not only the entire government, but the entire government should Mobilize the entire society and make the response entrepreneurial for all citizens.

If we do, we can beat back this virus. We can succeed in the containment strategy. Some people you follow in the media say it's already the pandemic. You know there's nothing we can do. what we can do now, we should move to mitigation and containment may not work, we do not believe that containment should be abandoned because I have already saved, many countries are succeeding in that containment strategy and they are containing the virus, but we are not saying that just follow containment. strategy what we are saying is that in addition to an aggressive containment strategy, please also prepare for any eventuality, there could be a crisis on our hands, so let us prepare for any eventuality, but we must not give up on the containment strategy, the worst What can happen to any country. or even any individual is giving up, so nature is saying don't give up, don't give up, use holistic approach, don't use dichotomy, let's use holistic approach, whatever we can do to contain it, if not, We won't tell. then we will have the other strategies at hand because we are saying to prepare for the rest, so that is what we are saying and this is linked to the political commitment that we said, this type of approach, a comprehensive approach cannot be sustained without a sustainable political commitment, a political commitment. at the highest level coordination at the highest level political intervention I repeat again political intervention is surgical intervention brings paradigm that is what we believe and then of course there must be technical competence to which is added both technical competence and political commitment can be obtained the highest and the greatest possible impact, many countries are demonstrating it now, so it is not time to give up, let's go for a comprehensive approach and that is our advice, so we will try to answer some questions from journalists who are online just to remind everyone that The audio files will be available immediately for those who have not had a good reception, but I understand that on our Twitter, counting on YouTube, the audio is clean, let's try if we can get the South China Morning Post Karen Karen, can you do the tentative transition sequences? has become two different versions and damaged the water, then you said that we were not, that we made no word for the species, but it is a different kind of insolence in the Indian country, if you are worried that we have reached the epidemic,Will it be covered or not, yes.

So, as you know, many sequences, whole genome sequences, are publicly available because two authorities and scientists published them on publicly available sites, so there these genetic sequences have been analyzed by a large number of virologists and scientists from everyone. the world and whu-oh is working with a network of scientists on this and when you do the phylogenetic analysis of these, we know that there are some early clades that have been visible in the trees and in the paper that emerged. you mean this tree, these splits were observed in this tree from the beginning, it's an analysis based on 103 complete genome sequences and they have no known association with severity in terms of these differences, so you know to look at the phylogenetics like further. sequences are available and we encourage countries to make their complete genome sequences available so these analyzes can continue, but this virus is very stable based on all the sequences we have seen so far.

Genetic analysis is very important for two reasons, obviously one. can help us look at the Z spread because you can compare viruses and spreads and triana link transmission chains and that is a race that we are using and right now in the Congo we have been using so hopefully we won't have to. Use it again as we know more cases, but that's it, it's also useful for tracking vaccine development and others because you may eventually have to select us a strain that you want to base a vaccine on and you want that to be as close as possible to what you have.

Certainly the data that has been published most recently has been publicly available for weeks and what is happening as researchers return to those wonderful resources that are now available and asking questions I am looking at these two clades but I would like the plates more it says if they found two exactly two two cars exactly the same make of car but the license plates are a little different it's a different car no it's no it's a different carrot it has a slightly different signature but it's not fundamentally a different virus and that's the most important thing here but these are please this is very important that these queries continue and that is the wonderful thing about having publicly accessible databases. that researchers and others have access to that data we can question that the data can generate hypotheses we can publish those hypotheses we can discuss them openly but it is also very important that we do not over-interpret the results or conclusions of any individual study and I think that is the balance we must achieve.

I would start by saying that I said it before. I am very worried, especially in recent days, because more and more cases are being reported in countries with weaker health systems and that adds to the concern that many I already say this could evolve into a pandemic or some people say we are almost closed and that could be true. I am telling the situation. I also agree that the situation could be worse than where we are now and it could be pandemic level, but what? At the same time, we say that there are countries in this situation that have shown that it can be contained, so we must not give up, so we must use a comprehensive approach and we have also said many times that there is no one size fits all. everything and if you look from one country to another there is variation and even within a country there is variation, so unless we are convinced that that is uncontrollable, why do we call it a pandemic?

But I mean, with the flu, we know that it is uncontrollable and it affects. much of the population probably what percentage of a billion, for example, with h1n1, if we come to that conclusion then it is uncontrollable, we may be able or in a position to say that, but what we are saying is that that is not the moment to may happen, but we don't give up without fighting hard, that's what we are saying, those who fought hard have already contained it, so there is already a positive sign and experience within this virus, so let's really use a comprehensive approach and remember some countries.

We have already said that we don't care if who knows says this is a pandemic or not. We would like to continue with a comprehensive approach that includes aggressive containment and we said you're right, that's exactly what we're saying, that's exactly what we're saying. So if we don't agree on the approach, which is the comprehensive approach, then the name may not matter, but even the name may matter, and if we get there we will say so without any problem, based on science and evidence, so that's what we're saying, but for now we're not there yet, although there are very, very worrying signs and this virus is reaching more and more countries with weaker health systems, but that doesn't mean we should give up, we're saying we should." Until the last attempt and that is what we are advising and political commitment and political intervention must be activated in all countries and do everything possible to contain it, that is what we are saying in terms of the difference between uncontrollable and uncontrolled and I think which is an important and very precise distinction that is used in a flu situation, a pandemic situation, the usual assumption is that the disease is not controlled, the spread is uncontrollable regardless of what we do, that's why we focus on saving lives, we focus on saving lives by treating cases or developing a vaccine. protecting the most vulnerable of our population, that is the focus in this case, but some countries are showing that it is possible to control the spread, it is impossible, it is possible to stop it and in that calculation, you now have two opportunities to save lives if you you contain and suppress the virus, you save lives by making sure that the vulnerable people in your society are not exposed and then if they are exposed you have more time to prepare your system to save their lives, you have another opportunity to intervene to save lives. so when the DG talks about uncontrollable spread where we focus on saving lives versus uncontrolled spread, what we have right now is a situation where the disease has spread and in some countries it is not yet under control , so it is never like that. uncontrolled or uncontrolled, but what you're saying is that we have the opportunity to control that and I think that's a very, very important distinction of words, that I really want to back up what you're saying and I think it explains a lot of the underlying logic of We are using the word pandemic here for a question.

We'll try to get that question online because we really couldn't do it and we apologize for all of that. Let's try one more time with Karen from the South China Morning Post. Karen, can you? listen to us this time hello yes I can yes I can hear me hello my question is about pets as you know and you also mention that the dog tested weakly positive and yesterday the Hong Kong authorities announced in the talk that it has low-level infection with the corona virus, so my question is: do you think governments should currently control pets and monitor them as if they belonged to impatient moons?

Thanks Karin, that question already came up at the beginning of the briefing and I apologize. If you couldn't hear, maybe now you can just repeat two words: We are aware of the dog in Hong Kong that tested positive and, as I mentioned earlier, we are working with our partners in Hong Kong at FAO and oh heyyy, to really understand what This means, we do not believe that having infected pets or an infected pet is a transmission factor in this outbreak, but as Mike had also said, having this example is unprecedented, but again, this is something we are working on with our partners. to better understand the Hong Kong authorities officially reported that under the international disability

organization

qie, so it's a nfa, we are actively tracking that situation and we have had teleconferences with them at this time. there is no need for special measures but follow-up studies are being done but certainly animal care is important and obviously any potential impact on the spread of disease as we continue to say that outliers and unusual observations are very important, an epidemic response, but we also need to be careful to make sure that we do not allow that to drive our thinking at its core, they need to influence what we do and at the moment we do not believe that there is any need for a change of policy based on the evidence we have. but we will continue to work with Hawaii to see if a change in our public health advice is necessary, so our first and last question was about pets and we will conclude here that tomorrow is another day.

John and the people will be here. I thank everyone for Watching the Guests and apologies once again to all those who wanted to ask questions and couldn't, so I hope we can answer more questions tomorrow. The cleaned audio file will be available immediately afterwards. Thank you very much to all.