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WHO / COVID-19 UPDATE
STORY: WHO / COVID-19 UPDATE
TRT: 3:57
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /NATS
DATELINE: 15 JUNE 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, press room
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization:
“It took more than two months for the first 100,000 cases to be reported. For the past two weeks, more than 100,000 new cases have been reported almost every single day. Almost 75% of recent cases come from 10 countries, mostly in the Americas and South Asia. However, we also see increasing numbers of cases in Africa, eastern Europe, central Asia and the Middle East. Even in countries that have demonstrated the ability to suppress transmission, countries must stay alert to the possibility of resurgence.”
3. Wide shot, press room
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization:
“Last week, China reported a new cluster of cases in Beijing, after more than 50 days without a case in that city. More than 100 cases have now been confirmed. The origin and extent of the outbreak are being investigated.”
5. Wide shot, press room
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Michael Ryan Executive Director, Health Emergencies Programme, WHO:
“I think it's important to note that that every country is different and certainly in China, when you spent over 50 days without having any significant local transmission, a cluster, like this is a concern, and it needs to be investigated and controlled, and that's exactly what the Chinese authorities are doing. So, in that sense, it is big news, but in the great scheme of things around the number of cases per day around the world, it's not, but it is significant event. We'll track that like we've tracked other significant clusters.”
7. Wide shot, press room
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Michael Ryan Executive Director, Health Emergencies Programme, WHO:
“Now we fully expect that our colleagues in China will share that information, and it is very important and they have done so in the past, as of many countries, particularly in sharing the genetic sequence, the finding that this may represents a strain more common than transmitting in Europe is important and it may reflect a human to human transmission more than any other hypothesis, but that remains to be seen.”
9. Wide shot, press room
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization:
“Despite the ongoing global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we cannot lose sight of other significant public health issues, including influenza. Influenza affects every country every year and takes its own deadly toll. As we enter the southern hemisphere influenza season and begin planning for the northern hemisphere season, we must ensure that influenza remains a top priority. Co-circulation of COVID-19 and influenza can worsen the impact on health care systems that are already overwhelmed.”
11. Wide shot, press room
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Michael Ryan Executive Director, Health Emergencies Programme, WHO:
“As countries have fought COVID-19 a lot of the resources that are within the flu network have been not in-appropriately, but entirely appropriately pushed into COVID surveillance. We now need to find that balance to ensure that we're also able to track influenza properly during that same period. We're now entering a period in the world where we have to be able to track both COVID-19 and influenza. Both are dangerous pathogens. We're lucky in influenza, we have vaccines that can seriously reduce infection and reduce severity of disease. And in order to be able to use those tools most effectively, we need the right vaccines. And in order to have the right vaccines, we need the surveillance data to tell us what the circulating strains are.”
13. Wide shot, press room
“Countries must stay alert to the possibility of resurgence” of COVID-19 cases, World Health Organization (WHO) warned today following reports of a new cluster in Beijing, after more than 50 days without a case in that city.
“It took more than two months for the first 100,000 cases to be reported. For the past two weeks, more than 100,000 new cases have been reported almost every single day,” WHO’s Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva during the regular COVID-19 press briefing.
Some 75% of recent cases come from 10 countries, mostly in the Americas and South Asia, according to WHO. However, increasing numbers of cases are being reported in Africa, eastern Europe, central Asia and the Middle East, said Dr Tedros.
Commenting on a new outbreak in China’s capital Beijing, Tedros said “more than 100 cases have now been confirmed. The origin and extent of the outbreak are being investigated.”
The first identified case in the new Beijing cluster had symptom onset on 9 June, and was confirmed on 11 June. Several of the initial cases were identified through six fever clinics in Beijing. Preliminary investigations revealed that some of the initial symptomatic cases had a link to the Xinfadi Market in Beijing. Preliminary laboratory investigations of throat swabs from humans and environmental samples from Xinfadi Market identified 45 positive human samples (all without symptoms at the time of reporting) and 40 positive environmental samples. One additional case without symptoms was identified as a close contact of a confirmed case.
“I think it's important to note that that every country is different and certainly in China, when you spent over 50 days without having any significant local transmission, a cluster, like this is a concern, and it needs to be investigated and controlled, and that's exactly what the Chinese authorities are doing,” said WHO’s Dr Michael Ryan, Executive Director of the Organization’s Health Emergencies Programme, “So, in that sense, it is big news, but in the great scheme of things around the number of cases per day around the world, it's not, but it is significant event. We'll track that like we've tracked other significant clusters.”
Dr Ryan also said “we fully expect that our colleagues in China will share that information, and it is very important and they have done so in the past, as of many countries, particularly in sharing the genetic sequence, the finding that this may represents a strain more common than transmitting in Europe is important and it may reflect a human to human transmission more than any other hypothesis, but that remains to be seen.”
While fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, Director-General Dr Tedros said “we cannot lose sight of other significant public health issues, including influenza.”
“Influenza affects every country every year and takes its own deadly toll” said DR Tedros adding that “co-circulation of COVID-19 and influenza can worsen the impact on health care systems that are already overwhelmed.”
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