MANILA – The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday said canceling events such as international conferences are not always necessary amid the spread of the novel coronavirus.
“Certainly it is always a concern if people come together…We have to have risk management procedures associated with that,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during a press briefing posted online.
“You cannot shut down the world either. Normal activity must go on,” he added in response to questions about “super-spreaders” or individuals who are able to transmit disease at a much higher rate than the world average.
The issue of superspreading came up as more than 40,000 people have been infected with more than 1,000 dead. While 99 percent of the cases are in China, the 2019 novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease (2019-nCoV ARD) has also reached other countries.
One report said a British businessman may have unintentionally spread the virus in at least three European countries, linking him to 11 other patients, according to The Guardian. The report said he likely contracted the virus in Singapore where he attended a sales conference. Of the 109 attendees, 94 traveled from abroad, including one from Wuhan, China.
After the sales conference in Singapore, the British man then went to a French ski resort with his family. It was later reported that five other British citizens who stayed in the same chalet tested positive for the new strain of coronavirus. Other confirmed cases were later reported.
However, Ghebreyesus said the numbers are still in single digits.
“What we need to see is reasonable, well-managed meetings and gatherings in which the risk is managed appropriately,” he said, explaining that events cannot be canceled at the slightest possibility of an infection.
“Where is the limit to this?” he said. “We need to remain calm. We need to be measured.”
“There is no zero risk in life,” he pointed out, saying that any event can lead to illness or accidents.
He said people should instead take a “risk management approach” by identifying risks and managing it.
WHO Global Infectious Hazard Preparedness Director Dr. Sylvie Briand also said that people should “look at superspreading events, not people” to avoid “stigmatization” or discriminating against individuals.
In the Philippines, the Department of Health has recommended the cancellation of concerts after it confirmed three positive cases of novel coronavirus.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
PARIS, France - A British man managed to pass on the coronavirus to at least 11 other people without ever setting foot in the epicenter of the outbreak in China, in an infectious journey that shows how the deadly virus can spread rapidly around a globalized world.
The adult British citizen, who has not been named publicly, caught the virus while attending a conference in Singapore and then passed it on to several compatriots while on holiday in the French Alps, before finally being diagnosed back in the UK.
Of those infected by the man, five have been hospitalized in France, five in Britain and one other man on the Spanish island of Mallorca.
How did he pass on the new coronavirus so rapidly in so many different places?
SINGAPORE
The man attended a business conference in Singapore from 20-22 January. More than 100 people took part in the conference, including at least one Chinese national from Hubei province, the epicentre of the epidemic that has now left more than 900 dead.
HAUTE-SAVOIE, FRENCH ALPS
He then traveled on to France to spend some days from January 24-28 at the ski resort of Contamines-Montjoie in the Alps with a group of other British citizens staying in two apartments in the same chalet.
BRIGHTON, ENGLAND
Stricken with fever after his return to the south of England, the man then went to a medical center in the southeastern town of Brighton where he was diagnosed with the coronavirus.
On February 6 he was transferred to the infectious diseases unit at the hospital of St Thomas in London.
Five other people who had contact with him at the French ski chalet were then confirmed by the British health authorities to be infected.
Some of the staff from The Grenadier pub, which the man went to just before he was hospitalized, have also been placed in isolation. But the pub has stayed open.
A medical center in Brighton said Monday it had temporarily closed for "an urgent operational health and safety reason".
The BBC and Sky News said one of the centre's staff members had tested positive for the virus, although this was not officially confirmed.
PARIS
Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said on February 8 that five British nationals, including a child, who stayed at the chalet with the man had tested positive.
Six other Britons staying in the same chalet were also hospitalized for observation.
"They show no serious signs" of those infected having any threat to their lives, added Buzyn.
Business owners in the Contamines-Montjoie resort have been keen to avoid any exaggerations of the threat as French families prepared to descend on the area for the half-term ski holidays.
Three schools attended by one of the British infected -- the child aged nine -- are closed and 100 have been people tested. All the results have been negative so far.
Similar efforts have been made to track down passengers who took a flight from Geneva -- the closest large airport to Contamines-Montjoie -- with the man when he went back to Britain on January 28.
MALLORCA, SPAIN
One member of the group he stayed with in France then sought medical help after returning to his home in Mallorca. The contamination took place between January 25 and January 29, according to the Spanish authorities.
The man in Mallorca is "currently in good health. He shows practically no symptom," said Fernando Simon, an official from Spain's health ministry.
The Mallorca man's wife and two daughters aged 10 and 7, who were also hospitalized for tests, have shown no sign of infection.
SPEED OF SPREAD SPURS FEARS
Experts said that the speed of the transmission showed the potential for the novel coronavirus to become a global pandemic.
"The recent report of transmission to British nationals in France are a worrying but perhaps not unexpected development," said Paul Hunter, Professor in Medicine, University of East Anglia.
"This reinforces the fact that transmission is no longer restricted to China. It is still too early to know when and if the epidemic will become pandemic and whether we will see start to see sustained person to person transmission in Europe."
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Agence France-Presse
HANOI - Vietnam confirmed another case of the new coronavirus on Tuesday, bringing its total to 15, the health ministry said.
The latest case is a 3-month-old baby, infected by her grandmother, who tested positive for the virus on Feb. 9, the ministry said in a statement.
It said 10 out of 15 confirmed case are from the northern province of Vinh Phuc.
Vietnam has made plans to quarantine hundreds of its citizens returning from China, including 950 at military camps outside Hanoi, and another 900 at temporary facilities on the Vietnam-China border.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
TAIPEI - Workers making iPhones at tech giant Foxconn's plant in central China will be quarantined for up to 2 weeks, the company said Thursday, as cities on the mainland tighten their defenses against the deadly coronavirus outbreak.
Also known by its official name Hon Hai Precision Industry, Foxconn is the world's biggest contract electronics maker and assembles Apple's iPhones, as well as gadgets for other international brands.
Foxconn's vast network of factories in China, including one of its largest in Zhengzhou in central Henan province, are set to resume operations on Feb. 10 after an extended Lunar New Year holiday caused by the outbreak.
But the company said it has advised instate and out-of-state employees at the Zhengzhou plant to be quarantined for 7 and 14 days, respectively, in accordance with local government policies.
China's industrial base has been buffeted by the outbreak of the virus, which began in the manufacturing hub of Wuhan in central China but has since spread to more than 20 countries.
The number of confirmed infections has hit more than 28,000 in China while death toll passed 560 in an outbreak that has spiraled into a global health emergency.
The virus is also set to have an impact on international supply chains and manufacturing given China's lynchpin role in the global economy.
Foxconn now projects a sales increase of 1 to 3 percent this year, down from a January forecast of 3 to 5 percent, chairman Young Liu told Bloomberg News.
Foxconn has tried to allay fears of production shortfalls, saying it had previous experience of viral outbreaks following the SARS epidemic in 2003.
It is China's biggest private-sector employer with more than 30 factories and research facilities -- including 1 in Wuhan.
Taiwan has reported 11 confirmed cases so far, mostly people returning from Wuhan.
The government announced Thursday that all foreigners who resided or visited China, Hong Kong or Macau in the past 14 days will be temporarily barred from entering the island.
Foreigners with residency permits in Taiwan returning from these areas must undergo a 14-day stay-home quarantine.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
SEOUL - A South Korean woman has tested positive for coronavirus after visiting Thailand, South Korean officials said Tuesday, the first foreign tourist reported to have been infected after a visit to the southeast Asian nation.
The 42-year-old, identified only as Patient 16, flew back to South Korea on Jan. 19 after traveling in Thailand, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said in a statement.
Treated since developing chills and other symptoms from Jan. 25, she did not improve until Sunday, the KCDC added, and was confirmed positive on Tuesday, following checks at Chonnam National University Hospital.
The statement did not explicitly rule out a visit to China, however.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WUHAN - A gray-haired man wearing a face mask lay dead on the pavement at ground zero of China's virus epidemic, a plastic shopping bag in one hand.
On what would typically be a crowded street in Wuhan, an industrial city of 11 million under quarantine, there are only a few passersby and they dare not go near him.
AFP journalists saw the body on Thursday morning, not long before an emergency vehicle arrived carrying police and medical staff in full-body protective suits.
The man lay straight on his back in front of a closed furniture store. Medical staff in blue overalls gently shrouded his body with a blue blanket.
The ambulance left, and police stacked supermarket cardboard boxes to hide the scene.
AFP could not determine how the man, who appeared to be in his 60s, had died. AFP contacted police and local health officials afterwards but could not get details on his case.
But the reaction of the police and medical staff in hazmat suits, as well as some of the bystanders, highlighted the fear pervading the city.
A woman standing near the man, wearing pink pajamas and a Mao cap, said she believed he had died from the virus.
"It's terrible," she said. "These days many people have died."
Wuhan is the epicenter of the outbreak of the new coronavirus, which is believed to have jumped from wild animals at a city market into humans.
The virus, which emerged late last year, has claimed at least 213 lives and infected thousands in China, with at least 159 deaths in Wuhan alone.
With the virus spreading to other countries, the World Health Organization has declared the crisis a global health emergency.
TORMENT
Authorities have imposed an unprecedented lockdown of Wuhan, blocking off roads out of the city and banning flights, in a bid to stop the virus spreading.
Those who are trapped are enduring a tormenting wait for the lockdown to end, for a cure to be found, or even just for check-ups at overwhelmed hospitals.
AFP reporters in Wuhan have seen long queues at hospitals, with some patients saying they had lined up for 2 days to see a doctor.
Many brought their own chairs for the wait.
With most traffic banned, people who venture outside have to walk or bike everywhere in the huge city.
The dead man on the street on Thursday lay one block from the Wuhan Number Six Hospital, one of the main medical centers for treating those with virus symptoms.
A team of forensic experts who examined him were immediately sprayed with disinfectant by colleagues after removing their hazardous material suits.
One man smoking near the scene was told sharply by police to put out his cigarette and don a face mask.
He quickly followed their orders.
In the 2 hours that AFP observed the scene, at least 15 ambulances passed by, attending other calls.
Finally, a white van with blacked-out windows arrived to take away the man.
The body was zipped into a yellow surgical bag, and carried into the van on a stretcher.
Staff immediately began to clean the ground as the van drove away, disinfecting the streets where the body had laid.
source: news.abs.com
