A doctor defends in front of two 3D-reconstructed lung models of a newly diagnosed coronavirus pneumonia patient during a 5G long-distance consultation at the Foremost Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University on March 2, 2020 in Kunming, Yunnan Province of China.
Kang Ping | China Gossip Service | Getty Images
The World Health Organization will likely deem the coronavirus a global pandemic moment sustained person-to-person spread takes hold outside China, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official told Congress on Tuesday.
The outbreak already congregates two of the three main criteria under the technical designation of a pandemic, Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the CDC, conveyed in prepared remarks to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
“It is a new virus, and it is capable of person-to-person spread,” she denoted. “If sustained person-to-person spread in the community takes hold outside China, this will increase the likelihood that the WHO will deem it a international pandemic.”
On Monday, WHO officials said the number of new COVID-19 cases outside China was almost nine times elated than that inside the country in the previous 24 hours.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said haleness officials would not “hesitate” to declare the outbreak a pandemic if “that’s what the evidence suggests.” On Friday, he said the WHO hadn’t make known a pandemic in part because most cases of COVID-19 were still traced to known contacts or clusters of protections, and there wasn’t any “evidence as yet that the virus is spreading freely in communities.”
Schuchat said Tuesday that the CDC, with help from the Department of Homeland Security, has conducted 49,827 passenger screenings at airports. The CDC has also deployed more than 1,500 personnel from headquarters, overseas and field deployments to help with response efforts, she said.
“CDC’s most expert and practiced transmissible disease and public health experts are dedicated to this response 24/7 to protect the American people,” she said. “The force’s approach to COVID-19 is built upon decades of experience with prior infectious disease emergencies including rejoinders to SARS, MERS, and Ebola, and to pandemic influenza.”
As of Monday, the CDC said 91 cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed in the Concerted States. At least 48 of those cases were repatriates from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the outbreak, and the Diamond Princess yacht ship, according to an update on the agency’s website. At least 17 cases — 12 confirmed and five presumptive confident — are travel-related infections. Twenty-six cases — four confirmed and 22 presumptive positive — are from human-to-human interaction, coinciding to the CDC.
Washington state health officials confirmed at least six deaths near Seattle since this weekend.
Last week, the CDC stepped up its dial for the public to start preparing for a possible pandemic outbreak in the U.S.
“We are asking the American public to work with us to prepare for the belief that this could be bad,” said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. Forms should consider dividing students into smaller groups or close and use “internet-based teleschooling,” she said.
“For adults, obligations can replace in-person meetings with video or telephone conferences and increase teleworking options,” she added.