Call to war –
WHO’s insights from China suggest that the virus can be contained.
Aylward, a nearly
Parents should talk with schools and daycares about outbreak responses and closure plans, and they should ask about tele-school options, she advised. Companies and employees should think about remote working arrangements and alternative childcare. And people should look into the availability of tele-medicine options with their healthcare providers.
Practical measures
In terms of preparation that public officials should be doing to prepare, Aylward said there were key takeaways from China’s successful responses. “There are really practical things” to prepare, he said, such as making sure that hospital beds are available, isolation measures are in place, health facilities have adequate amounts of ventilators and oxygen, and public health workers are ready to trace contacts of new cases as they’re identified.
Aylward also noted that based on the large amount of disease screening that’s been done in China so far, there does not seem to be a huge number of mild cases that are going undetected. And while asymptomatic spread of disease may happen, it does not seem to be a driver of the outbreak, he said. This assessment may dampen concern that the virus will become a pandemic by spreading widely in communities from unrecognized asymptomatic or mild cases. So far, household-level transmission appears to be the main driver of the outbreak, he said.
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