Geneva, Switzerland
Reuters
Roughly one in 10 people may have been infected with the coronavirus, leaving the vast majority of the world’s population vulnerable to the COVID-19 disease it causes, the World Health Organization said on Monday.
Mike Ryan, the WHO’s top emergency expert, was addressing the agency’s executive board, where the United States made a thinly veiled swipe at China for what it called a “failure” to provide accurate and timely information on the outbreak.
A nurse attends to a patient suffering from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the Department of Anesthesiology in the Intensive Care ward at Cruces Hospital, amid the coronavirus outbreak in Barakaldo, Spain, on 30th September. PICTURE: Reuters/Vincent West/File photo.
But Zhang Yang of China’s National Health Commission, said: “China has always been transparent and responsible to fulfil our international obligations.” China maintained close contacts with all levels of the UN health agency, she added.
Ryan said that outbreaks were surging in parts of South-East Asia and that cases and deaths were on the rise in parts of Europe and the eastern Mediterranean region.
“Our current best estimates tell us about 10 per cent of the global population may have been infected by this virus. It varies depending on country, it varies from urban to rural, it varies depending on groups. But what it does mean is that the vast majority of the world remains at risk,” Ryan said.
“We are now heading into a difficult period. The disease continues to spread,” he said.
The WHO and other experts have said that the virus, believed to have emerged in a food market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, is of animal origin.
The WHO has submitted a list of experts to take part in an international mission to China to investigate the origin, for consideration by Chinese authorities, Ryan said, without giving details.
US assistant health secretary Brett Giroir said that it was critical that WHO’s 194 member states receive “regular and timely updates, including the terms of reference for this panel or for any field missions, so that we can all engage with the process and be confident in the outcomes”.
Germany, speaking for the EU, said the expert mission should be deployed soon, with Australia also supporting a swift investigation.
Meanwhile, Alexandra Dronova, Russia’s deputy health minister, called for an evaluation of the legal and financial repercussions of the Trump administration announcing the US withdrawal from the WHO next July.
The United States will not pay some $US80 million it owes the WHO and will instead redirect the money to help pay its UN bill in New York, a US official said on 2nd September.
Meanwhile, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday said COVID-19 can spread through virus lingering in the air, sometimes for hours, acknowledging concerns widely voiced by public health experts about airborne transmission of the virus.
The CDC guidance comes weeks after the agency published – and then took down – a similar warning, sparking debate over how the virus spreads.
In Monday’s guidance, CDC said there was evidence that people with COVID-19 possibly infected others who were more than six feet (1.8 metres) away, within enclosed spaces with poor ventilation.
Under such circumstances, CDC said scientists believe the amount of infectious smaller droplet and particles, or aerosols, produced by the people with COVID-19 become concentrated enough to spread the virus.
The CDC has long warned of transmission through small droplets that shoot through the air and generally fall to the ground, which resulted in the six-feet social distancing rule. Aerosol droplets are much smaller still, and can remain suspended in the air, like smoke.
While CDC stresses close-contact transmission is more common than through air, a group of US scientists warned in an unrelated open letter published in medical journal Science on Monday that aerosols lingering in the air could be a major source of COVID-19 transmission.
“The reality is airborne transmission is the main way that transmission happens at close range with prolonged contact,” the researchers said in a press call.
Viruses in aerosols can remain in the air for seconds to hours, travel more than two meters and accumulate in poorly ventilated indoor air, leading to superspreading events, the researchers said.
Since individuals with COVID-19 release thousands of virus-laden aerosols and far fewer droplets while breathing and talking, the scientists said the focus must be on protecting against airborne transmission.
They also said that public health officials should clearly differentiate between droplets ejected by coughing or sneezing and aerosols that can carry the virus to greater distances
Public health officials must highlight the importance of moving activities outdoors and improving indoor air, along with wearing mask and social distancing, the letter said.
– With VISHWADHA CHANDER in Bengaluru, India.
