WHO Considers Emergency Decree Over Coronavirus; Toll Hits 170
The World Health Organization called a meeting of its Emergency Committee Thursday to consider issuing a global alarm as the death toll from the spreading coronavirus rose to 170 and the number of cases jumped.
Governments tightened international travel and border crossings with China as they ramped up efforts to stop the spread of the disease. Airlines across the world suspended more flights to the country, as the U.S., the U.K., Japan and other countries moved to evacuate citizens from the outbreak’s epicenter, Wuhan.
China’s death toll from the coronavirus rose to 170 from 132 previously, while the number of cases on the mainland jumped to 7,711, according to the National Health Commission.
President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser said the U.S. would send experts to China to help the nation contain the coronavirus outbreak.
“We are sending our best experts from CDC to help them,” Larry Kudlow told reporters on Wednesday, referring to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The Chinese invited us to do so.”
Asked whether the White House is considering restricting flights to China, Kudlow said “there’s a lot of discussions going on one way or another.”
China’s Hubei province reported 37 additional deaths from the novel coronavirus for Jan. 29, bringing total nationwide fatalities to at least 169, according to a statement Thursday from the Health Commission of Hubei Province.
The province at the center of the outbreak reported 1,032 new confirmed cases over the 24-hour period. There have been more than 6,000 cases reported previously for mainland China.
The CDC said more than 200 U.S. citizens have returned on a flight from Wuhan. They are being monitored at March Air Reserve Base in California.
One of the citizens wasn’t allowed on the flight due to a fever, officials said at a briefing Wednesday. Passengers included State Department personnel and other Americans, including children.
“We are going to monitor them for the full extent of their incubation period,” said Cameron Kaiser, public health officer for Riverside County, Calif., where the base is located. “Everyone has agreed to do that.”
The passengers will be kept at the base for three days while tests are run. If any want to return to their home state or town after three days, the CDC said it would pass along information to local health departments so they can be monitored for the maximum 14-day incubation period.
The World Health Organization’s Emergency Committee will meet Thursday to consider declaring the coronavirus a global crisis.
“The whole world needs to be on alert now,” Michael Ryan, executive director of the UN agency’s Health Emergencies Program, said at a press conference in Geneva. “‘The whole world needs to take action and be ready for any cases that come” in China or beyond.
The WHO last week stopped short of calling the outbreak a global health emergency, saying it remained a local crisis for the time being. Declaring a global emergency would allow the WHO to coordinate government responses to the crisis. Since last week, China has taken unprecedented measures to try to slow the spread of the virus.
Scientists in Melbourne, Australia, are growing the virus from a patient sample, the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity said Wednesday. Information gleaned from the research will provide other laboratories with data needed to help combat the virus, they said.
Research labs in various cities, including Hong Kong, are already growing the virus to study and characterize its properties, including where in the body it’s likely to replicate and cause infection.
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With assistance from Josh Wingrove and Linly Lin.
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