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  • reducing deaths, protecting health workers and developing a vaccine.

  • Those are the priorities of the World Health Organization set out as we go on air for a two day meeting of health experts in Geneva.

  • They put together a global call to action to tackle Corona virus, which they've now renamed Cove in 19.

  • Our health correspondent, Victoria McDonald is in Geneva on Victory will come back to that meeting in a minute.

  • But first, if you could just bring us up to date on this breaking news about the first case in London, please.

  • Yes, we understand that it was Ah, woman from mainland China who flew into Britain on who is currently on her way to ST Thomas's Hospital in south London, where they have a specialist center.

  • That is as much as we know at the moment.

  • It was always expected that we would get cases here, and the public health system is set up very well.

  • So we're told to be able to deal with this.

  • And now what about the W H O meeting that you've been listening in to?

  • Yes, they've spent 22 days with more than 400 experts putting together a blueprint a road map so that they don't have any gaps.

  • They want to know where the research should be.

  • They want to know how they can prevent deaths.

  • What sort of vaccines need to be developed?

  • They say that they've got four vaccines, that a potential and maybe two of those might be in human trials within a few months, though not anything ready for bait, maybe 18 months.

  • What is critical is that they have put together this plan because in the past, there have bean gaps.

  • This is what the director general had to say just now.

  • As we speak, research groups are meeting with the leading research funders to start work immediately on the most pressing questions.

  • Some off this issues include easy toe apply it agnostics, the best approach for infection prevention potential therapists that could be used to treat patients, existing vaccine candidates and howto accelerate them.

  • And how to address the important Mick.

  • You can see there there are a number of questions that they have to answer, and there are numerous and questions that aren't answered, not least, why have been no cases reported in India, Indonesia and Africa, A ll places where there is a lot of movement between China.

  • So there questions, queries, worries, actually that there haven't been any reports.

  • But this is how the day in the last two days have unfolded.

  • When they went into hospital, they were diagnosed with novel Corona virus pneumonia discharged yesterday.

  • They are cured, and the disease is now called covert 19.

  • Not much else has changed, though experts still don't have the answers to some critical questions.

  • How contagious the viruses can it spread without people showing symptoms?

  • They're even on a clear on the death rate.

  • So scientists meeting the World Health Organization Geneva have developed a blueprint to help speed up the information we need and to develop medicines to vaccinate, treat and cure.

  • This meeting is a direct result of lessons learned during the West Africa Ebola outbreak because while they were eventually able to develop a vaccine, they also found that they had huge gaps, particularly in research and development, and they don't want that to happen this time.

  • The blueprint outlines how to mobilize international action, produce a global research agenda, accelerate the development of medical products to control the outbreak and increase the understanding of the disease.

  • I'm sure that everyone feels terrible, that so many lives have to be lost in the West Africa Ebola outbreak Before we could get our act together, we don't want to see that.

  • And in fact, even the debts that are happening on a daily basis in China, you can see that everyone feels bad about that and wants to do something to stop it.

  • So it doesn't matter which country is affected.

  • Somehow there seems to be now, at least in the scientific community, a desire that a global public good.

  • It's something that's driving people.

  • Information from previous Corona virus outbreaks like SARS in the early two thousands means vaccine developers are not starting entirely from scratch.

  • People are dying as we speak or have already died, so it's never timely enough in our next session.

  • But what I see what I hear, what I feel, what I also feel myself is that people are doing really the very best and beyond to be as quick as possible.

  • Little earnings from other outlets situations in the past, like H one on one or Ebola this this is being integrated so that things can go much quicker now room service with a difference protection suits delivering food and temperature checks.

  • This is a hotel on Hoob, a province currently in quarantine, the Chinese authorities air claiming that overall numbers of new cases of covered 19 are fallen.

  • The daily number of new confirmed cases dropped 2015 on Tuesday from the pink of 3887 recorded on February the fourth.

  • The daily number of new suspected cases has also load.

  • But medical experts are cautious, saying there are too many gaps in the data to know how meaningful this is.

  • And in Wu Han, the numbers remain overwhelming, with reports of the authorities requisitioning private hospitals, hotels, apartments, cars and even face masks.

  • So far, more than 45,000 people have been diagnosed with covered 19 and there have bean 1117 deaths.

  • The numbers outside China remained tiny, but containment is everything, stopping it spread while scientists seek the prevention and the cure retirement.

  • Donnel reporting from Geneva So as we've heard, it's been revealed in the last hour that a woman who flew into London from China a few days ago is being treated for Corona virus, bringing the total number of U.

  • K cases to nine.

  • She reportedly developed symptoms after landing, and he turned is now in a central London hospital.

  • Health officials in Sussex say that they've traced all close contact of two GPS who've been diagnosed with the illness.

  • Several schools in the Brighton area has said that parents can choose to keep their Children at home.

  • I should tell reports the community watching closely but calmly in Worthing in Brighton and Hope people are taking precautions and asking for more information on covert 19 known as the Corona virus.

  • And here in Worthing, one of the eight confirmed UK cases works in the any department of this hospital Just outside, people are more aware of the virus than even yesterday.

  • You worried about it?

  • Do you think people do?

  • You get a sense that people are getting a bit more worried in a bit more panic and a bit more worried, a bit more panicking because every time anybody sneezes or coughs or anything else, I get a bit foot nan's that putting their coats up over their mouths and everything else.

  • But a lot of people have just got common colds.

  • Jeffrey panics every time they said there was no nuts out.

  • That's because Is it really worth it?

  • More schools taking action Parents have been told they can keep their Children home at this school, kids say their classrooms and nearly half empty is usually so.

  • A lot of talk after you get into the way, isn't it?

  • So just be careful.

  • Perhaps I called the school and hopefully they said like nothing can.

  • Can I miss?

  • You're can miss.

  • But six year.

  • It's everywhere.

  • So they wanted because you want to stay.

  • Yeah, So let's take a look at all the places that have been taking precautions.

  • More than 10 schools across the region have given pupils the option of staying home.

  • Five GP Surgeries Close Briefly Most have reopened a community center Onda pub have also been affected.

  • But a lot of this is precautionary and is related to the suspected but not confirmed contact with the virus.

  • The man at the center of the virus outbreak, Steve Walsh, has been released from hospital.

  • In a statement, he said, I'm happy to be home and feeling well.

  • I want to give a big thank you to the N hs who have bean great throughout.

  • And my thoughts are with everyone around the world who continues to be affected by the virus.

  • It's good to be back home with my family.

  • Public Health England say they've now traced and given advice to the patients of the two GPS who had caught the virus for Mr Walsh today in the area, there's been lots more awareness, and with that a demand for more certainty.

  • Some people that I've spoken to today say they feel that the council has been missing in action, So I gave the council call, but their mailbox was full.

  • It seems like they've been inundated with calls.

  • So what I did was went into reception, and a spokeswoman told me that they want to reiterate that schools are still open.

  • But some schools have given parents the option of keeping their Children home if they want to on.

  • They also reiterate that if anyone feels unwell, it'll that they should call 111 For now, there are no new confirmed cases, places a reopening.

  • The man at the center of it all is back with his family.

  • None of the eight people who are confirmed to have the cove it 19 virus court it inside the UK But health authorities are still on high alert to return now to our top story on Corona virus in the outbreak in Brighton, the local MP.

  • They're green and pee.

  • Caroline Lucas joins us now from the House of Commons.

  • Caroline, because there's a lot of panic in Sussex generally.

  • What do you think that parents or the elderly should do?

  • What advice would you give them?

  • Well, three Very honest that I think it's for an MP to give advice.

  • I think it's for public health England to be giving that advice.

  • And what I would love to see is a lot more proactive advice being given by Public health.

  • England by our counsel by the N HS.

  • I think at the moment the information is being put in different places.

  • It's not all in one portal, for example, on as a result, I think anxiety is growing.

  • So what I would love to see is a much more coherent, consistent, proactive public health campaign, both nationally on locally because, you know, people are coming to my office, for example, they've got the message about tissues and about washing their hands.

  • But they're still struggling to understand, for example, what self isolation really means.

  • So I want to see a lot more information coming out from government and indeed locally to and would do that.

  • Why do you think it is that people aren't?

  • The authorities aren't being straight with people.

  • I mean, is there a kind of cover up going on here?

  • Is the situation worse or what?

  • Do you suspect behind that?

  • No, I don't think that at all.

  • I I think that people are trying to get the right balance between reassuring people not inducing panic, certainly not revealing any kind of patient confidentiality.

  • And I do recognize that that is a fine line to tread.

  • Nonetheless, I think that on this they have actually aired on the wrong side off the issue by withholding more information instead of being as open as they possibly can.

  • So, for example, the Council I would love to see them have one portal where all of the information goes, because otherwise people look to the local papers, for example, one of the local papers is being pretty sensationalist about it.

  • I have to say on.

  • I don't think that's very helpful.

  • So if people were able to get timely, accurate information all in one place from either the council or from public health, England.

  • But make sure you people know which it is, then I think we would have less anxiety rather than more.

  • Are the authorities being straight with you?

  • Are you getting briefed or not?

  • I am getting briefed.

  • I mean, obviously, I don't know what I'm not being told, but certainly I am in close contact with Public health England on with the chief medical officer's office.

  • I welcome that.

  • But I just feel that first of all, the different initiatives aren't sufficiently joined up, so there isn't consistent messaging coming out.

  • My mail bag is full of people who have got all kinds of questions about, for example, what self isolation really means.

  • What does that mean if they're in a shared house with other people who want their family?

  • So you know, perhaps they can't ask them to go and do their shopping for them or whatever else.

  • So I would like to see some more practical answers being addressed, and I says, I say I think nationally we need to see more of ah joined up public health campaign on, I think we also need to see you know, a real crackdown on the stigma that is already happening.

  • Hearing about racism, the university, for example, I'm hearing about, you know, that the kind of stigma that comes along with the language around super spreaders There's no such thing as a super spreader.

  • We shouldn't be using language like that.

  • The person in question actually did exactly what they should have done as soon as their symptoms were apparent.

  • So I would like to see us dial down the sensationalism.

  • But I think one of the ways of doing that it's filling what can sometimes feel like a bit of an information vacuum with more information, not less.

  • What are the authorities telling you, for example, about what parents should do about sending kids to school?

  • Or have they told you not to share what they're telling you?

  • They haven't told me not to share it explicitly, and I'm sharing what I can, but I think that it's just important that people get that message direct.

  • And so they are saying that you know, if there's someone else you can take your kids to school, then that's great.

  • But they also comes into the question about whether or not you think you have had sustained contact with someone who is a confirmed case.

  • So it's It is a complex set of messages, but I still think a lot more could be done to make that clear up on the Web sites and threw a broader public health campaign.

  • If you've got a child, you know, and you know that someone in the school, as is the case, is the Von Dean School, for example, says that a person from our school community not being explicit, who if you're a parent of our school, should you send your Children to school there?

  • Well, I want to quote public health thing that not myself.

  • I don't think MP should be making those judgments, but Public Health England have said very clearly that they think it is fine for students to continue to go to that school, so I would simply point them to that.

  • But the very fact that people are asking that question suggests to me that that public health message is not getting out as loud and clearly as it should.

  • There also seems to be very different ways of treating this disease within your constituency.

  • For example, Worthing Hospital.

  • So that's where one of the eight infected workers worked.

  • That hasn't been closed or disinfected.

  • As far as we know.

  • Where's the GP surgeries have?

  • Is that discrepancy a problem?

  • As far as you're concerned, I think it does beg questions.

  • And that's my point, really, that if we had a ah portal where people could go and see what's going on and why it's happening?

  • I mean, when it came to the issue off closing health centers and so forth, I understand that that had to be done so that a deep, clean could could happen.

  • But I also heard from public health thing than that it was not up their advice that that health under her closed So you know there will be discrepancies in the way different people deal with the problem.

  • All I'm asking for is the consistent information to be available to people so that when they noticed these discrepancies, they can go onto a website and find out if there's a reason for it and we know from the W.

  • H o just now that we know.

  • What we don't know is whether they were at the start the middle of the end of this outbreak.

  • Could the n hs in your area code with a dramatic escalation in cases?

  • Do you think I'm not aware that the N H s could cope anywhere with a dramatic increase in cases?

  • We know that the N H s is is, you know, at the very limits of what it can sustain just about across the country.

  • So that is a real worry.

  • On the other hand, given that most of the advice essentially is to stay at home, not to be turning up to a any phone 111 If you think you've got symptoms, don't go somewhere where you might be able to spread the disease further.

  • Hopefully, some of the pressure on the NHL's won't be directly from people going to Annie.

  • Caroline Lucas.

  • Thanks very much for joining us.

  • Now let's go back to Geneva and the headquarters of the W.

  • H.

  • A Doctor.

  • Sylvia Browne is the director of pandemic and epidemic diseases at the World Health Organization.

  • Thanks for coming on the program.

  • I mean, how far are we away from a global pandemic of the moment, as far as you know.

  • So currently you know we have the epicenter in Hubei Province and then few epidemic foresight in in China but outside China, currently we have around 440 cases, and so we cannot say it's a pandemic, even if we have those few clusters of cases in 24 countries.

  • But in image off its these countries, the contact are traceable.

  • We know the chain of transmission, and the authorities are reporting regularly the cases.

  • But things are under control and we have even information from a Singapore, for instance.

  • And they are testing much more cases than necessary forthis kind off situation.

  • Beyond that which says a case definition just to check if there is transmission that they would not have detected.

  • But so far they say that for all the testing of being doing I mean, they are old negative.

  • Okay, So for instance, we've had no reported cases in India, In Indonesia, in the whole continent of Africa, these are all places that are very close links to China.

  • The fact that down any cases reported there is that reassuring to you or alarming because there might be missed.

  • So we had had the report from, uh in jail, for instance.

  • And there are.

  • Those countries are on high alert, so they are reporting alerts.

  • But when the tested, they showed that the test on negative so far Andi, with regard to ah freak out, for instance, before they didn't have the capacity to test.

  • But recently we have shipped diagnostic test to those countries who now more and more countries in Africa are able to test for the virus.

  • And it's not completely, I mean, surprising that you don't have a case is in Africa, because when we did at the beginning of the outbreak, statistics on the intensity off air travel from Huan to other countries, Africa didn't come first on what the country came first.

  • Where Japan, Thailand And indeed, this is where we have found the first important exported cases.

  • Shouldn't you have called an emergency earlier?

  • Maybe at the end of the very beginning of the year or even at the end of the last year?

  • So the difficulty when you make this kind of decision I mean, the emergency committee met and the initial data we had, there were very few cases outside China, so really the most of the cases where in Hu Bei province.

  • And so I determined the Mets.

  • Initially we had, I think, if I remember well, seven countries reporting one or two cases.

  • So at that time the committee decided that it was they didn't have enough data to conclude that it was already an emergency.

  • But when they met one week later with more data and then we had seen more cases exported.

  • So then they decided that now it's time to raise the alarm and and high school other country to get ready to receive more cases.

  • So it's evolving situation and the decision you make one day may change the next day and hopefully soon we will be able to see a trend towards decrease.

  • And then we can make also other decision on this outbreak indeed.

  • I mean, it's hard to know what to believe, that I know that many questions you're trying to answer, that you haven't been able to answer it.

  • But for instance, the man who was in charge of the sounds lies in Hong Kong.

  • A very eminent neurologist has argued that as many as 60% off the global population could be infected by this virus.

  • Is that an outlandish scenario, or is that a realistic scenario?

  • As far as you're concerned.

  • So professor lungs, that indeed that we could reach this this proportion of population affected if nothing is done.

  • But it's not what is happening.

  • I mean, many things are done, too.

  • Stop the virus first or slow the spread of this virus.

  • So and this is what we are currently seeing.

  • I mean, the number of cases remain increase but stable, stable, stabilized.

  • And so we don't see a next clothes Eve epidemic as we could have feared at the beginning of this outbreak.

  • So dementia that are taken are really about flowing down the spread and, if possible, eliminate the virus.

  • London's, of course, of a global transport hub there.

  • Lots of flights coming in from China.

  • We've heard tonight that indeed there is a single case of someone who has been diagnosed with the virus in London.

  • How worried should we be in this city, for instance, I think what is important is, uh, to really understand that there is a risk of importation and further transmission, especially in large urban settings, because there is a lot of people, a lot of movement.

  • However, now we know much better the virus.

  • We know what can be the transmitter, VT.

  • The severity.

  • And so there are things we can do to protect the people, especially the ones who are most at risk to get the infection under severe disease.

  • So I think it's time just to confront the threats and just put in place the right measure to mitigate this impact.

  • I'm just in one bravery flying It is still the elderly or the infirm who are most at risk here.

  • Children, for instance, a much less and brisket teams.

  • Yes, it's true.

  • We see that among the cases, most of the cases that are elderly population or people with underlying conditions on DSO thes age group and a group of people need to be better protected.

  • We see mild cases in Children, but usually Children.

  • So far we have not seen a huge number off severe cases in Children.

reducing deaths, protecting health workers and developing a vaccine.

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