{"id":24232,"date":"2020-03-31T10:38:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T10:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southafricajournal.com\/?p=24232"},"modified":"2020-04-01T10:45:33","modified_gmt":"2020-04-01T10:45:33","slug":"who-countries-must-take-steps-to-push-down-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricajournal.com\/who-countries-must-take-steps-to-push-down-coronavirus\/","title":{"rendered":"WHO: Countries Must Take Steps to ‘Push Down’ Coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Despite vast improvements\nin countries such as China and South Korea, the World Health Organization said\nTuesday the coronavirus outbreak is \u201cfar from over\u201d in\nthat region.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is going to be a\nlong-term battle and we cannot let down our guard. We need every country to\nkeep responding according to their local\nsituation,\u201d the WHO regional director for the Western\nPacific, Dr. Takeshi Kasai, said at a briefing.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

China reported one new\ndeath and 48 new cases Tuesday, none of them locally transmitted, while South\nKorea reported 125 new ones.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kasai and experts at a\nseparate WHO briefing stressed that governments need to be taking active\nmeasures and maintain pressure to halt the spread of the respiratory\ninfection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the WHO had no\nevidence that the rising temperatures of the coming hot season would\nslow down the virus, as some had hoped, and that there was no telling\nhow much longer the pandemic would last. 
\n
\nMatthew Griffith, an epidemiologist advising the WHO on its response to the\nvirus in the region, said he was concerned that any infection spikes to come\nwere most likely to happen in the poorest countries. Laos and Myanmar reported\ntheir first COVID-19 cases only last week, although some health\nexperts believe they may be missing many cases for a lack of testing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Ryan is the\nexecutive director of the WHO\u2019s health emergencies program.\nHe said officials hope countries currently experiencing the\nworst effects, including Italy and Spain, will soon see their situations\nstabilize; but, he said the virus will not stop itself, requiring\ngovernments to act to \u201cpush down\u201d the number of infections.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coronavirus technical lead\nMaria Van Kerkhove said those public efforts must include testing,\nisolation, finding contacts and quarantining\nthose individuals.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Italy\nreported 837 more deaths Tuesday, bringing its total\nto 12,428, while Spain surpassed China in terms of overall\ncases. Only the United States has more cases than Italy and\nSpain.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spain announced 849\nnew deaths Tuesday, the largest single-day increase since the pandemic\nbegan, boosting the country\u2019s death toll to 8,189. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ryan also cited the\nshortage of protective masks for health care workers, and reiterated WHO advice\nthat generally healthy people should not wear them.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There is no\nspecific evidence to suggest that the wearing of masks by the mass population\nhas any potential benefit. In fact, there’s some evidence to suggest the\nopposite in the misuse of wearing a mask properly or fitting it properly,”\nhe said.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. states ask for\nhelp  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The iconic Empire\nState Building in New York City lit up Monday night in the form of a red and\nwhite siren to honor emergency workers \u201con the front line of the fight.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

New\nYork is the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, with more than 900 deaths\nas hospitals struggle to cope with the influx of\npatients.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

New\nYork state Governor Andrew Cuomo has made a nationwide\nappeal for more help, asking doctors and nurses in areas without an urgent\ncoronavirus situation to travel to the area to help. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\npandemic turned personal for Governor Cuomo on Tuesday when he learned his\nbrother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, has been diagnosed with the\ncoronavirus and would continue to broadcast from his basement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other side of\nthe country, California Governor Gavin Newsom turned to retired doctors and\nnurses, as well as medical students, to boost the health care response. \nHe announced Monday the number of people hospitalized with coronavirus\ninfections had nearly tripled over the course of four\ndays.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, the number of\nU.S. cases topped 175,000 with more than 3,400 deaths\nas of Tuesday afternoon, according to the Johns Hopkins\nUniversity. The U.S. death toll surpassed China\u2019s official tally of\n3,305. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worldwide there have\nbeen more than 823,000 confirmed cases, with more\nthan 174,000 people already recovered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Africa Centers for\nDisease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday there were more than 5,000\ncases on the continent. South Africa accounts for one in four\ncases, and its president announced plans to\nlaunch a door-to-door effort to screen and test people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday also brought\nthe latest rounds of travel bans and domestic lockdowns, including Indonesia\nbanning entry to foreigners who do not have residence visas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Japan urged its\ncitizens not to travel to areas with ongoing\noutbreaks, issuing warnings for the United States, China and South\nKorea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vietnam planned to start\na two-week nationwide lockdown on Wednesday and was telling\npeople not to gather in groups of more than two people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hungary and Serbia are\namong a group of countries that are subject to growing concern that populist\nleaders are using the crisis to seize more authority and silence\ncritics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human rights\nexpert Ingibj\u00f6rg S\u00f3lr\u00fan G\u00edslad\u00f3ttir of the Organization for\nSecurity and Cooperation in Europe said, \u201cA state of emergency, wherever\nit is declared and for whatever reason, must be proportionate to its aim, and\nonly remain in place for as long as absolutely necessary.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: Voice of America<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite vast improvements in countries such as China and South Korea, the World Health Organization said Tuesday the coronavirus outbreak is \u201cfar from over\u201d in that region.     \u201cThis is going to be a long-term battle and we cannot let down our guard. We need every country to keep responding according to their local situation,\u201d the WHO regional director for the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nWHO: Countries Must Take Steps to 'Push Down' Coronavirus - South Africa Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southafricajournal.com\/who-countries-must-take-steps-to-push-down-coronavirus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WHO: Countries Must Take Steps to 'Push Down' Coronavirus - South Africa Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Despite vast improvements in countries such as China and South Korea, the World Health Organization said Tuesday the coronavirus outbreak is \u201cfar from over\u201d in that region.     \u201cThis is going to be a long-term battle and we cannot let down our guard. 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