Tulane Outbreak Daily | March 17, 2020

Featured Headlines

• Hard-line Shiites storm Iran shrines closed over coronavirus – AP Hard-line Shiite faithful in Iran pushed their way into the courtyards of two major shrines just closed over fears of the new coronavirus, Iranian state media reported Tuesday, as the Islamic Republic pressed on with its struggle to control the Mideast’s worst outbreak.
• COVID-19 pushing Italian ICUs toward collapse – CIDRAP
• Spying on the virus: Israel secret service to track patients – AP Shin Bet internal security service reported that the agency received Cabinet approval overnight to start deploying its counter-terrorism tech measures to help curb the spread of the new coronavirus in Israel.
• USA: Kentucky Derby postponed; Ohio closes polls ahead of primary – Channel 6 News
• Drugmaker Takeda Sees Speedy Approval of Coronavirus Treatment – Bloomberg
• How U.S. coronavirus testing stalled: Flawed tests, red tape and resistance to using the millions of tests produced by the WHO – Washington Post From mid-January until Feb. 28, fewer than 4,000 tests from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were used out of more 160,000 produced. FDA and CDC officials have attributed some of the testing delays to their determination to meet exacting scientific standards, the government effort was nevertheless marred by a widespread manufacturing problem that stalled U.S. testing for most of February.
• Infection Trajectory: See Which Countries are Flattening Their COVID-19 Curve – Visual Capitalist
• Covid-19: How long does the coronavirus last on surfaces? – BBC
• ‘Radical Change’ To Life As COVID-19 Reaches 152 Countries – NPR

Europe

• Links to individual European Country MOH websites
• France orders lockdown to slow COVID-19 spread – CIDRAP
• Spain: Cases surpass 10,000, death toll rises – NBC The total number of confirmed cases in Spain surpassed 10,000 on Tuesday and the number of fatalities rose to 491
• UK: PM urges industry to help make NHS ventilators – BBC
• Italy: More young people are being admitted to hospital in Italy with coronavirus, as the outbreak continues – iNews UK Younger people with lots of social contact are more at risk of contracting the disease if they do not stick to social distancing rules
• Scotland: 24 new Covid-19 cases in Scotland as total rises to 195 – one new death reported – The Scotsman

Middle East

• Iran: The health ministry reported 1,053 new cases, down from yesterday, along with 129 more deaths, raising its respective totals to 14,991 and 853 – CIDRAP
• Iraq:  Reported its first case on Feb 22, which involved an Iranian student. So far, the country has confirmed 83 cases, 8 of them fatal – CIDRAP

Asia

• South Korea MOH Updates
• Malaysia: cases rose by 125 today, most of them linked to a large gathering that drew several international participants to a mosque outside of Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia has reported 553 cases – CIDRAP
• North Korea: No One Knows How Many Virus Cases North Korea Has. It Says Zero – Bloomberg
• South Korea: Cases continue to slow, with only 74 more reported today – CIDRAP
• The Korean Clusters – Reuters
• China: 16 new cases today, while the country announced a 14-day quarantine for all international travelers entering Beijing – CIDRAP
• China: Observation on decreasing numbers of cases in Wuhan – ProMed During the past 3-4 days, the number of new infections has come down drastically in Wuhan. This has been considered success of control measures. There is another epidemiological explanation. Wuhan population has very likely been virtually saturated with SARS-CoV-2 infection, depleting the numbers, and minimising the proportion of non-immune persons among the population. Low numbers of new infections should be expected. This sequence of events suggests that eventually, SARS-CoV-2 will behave like H1N1 and follow a similar trajectory. We should expect it becoming endemic and probably seasonal. Not a comforting thought. In Wuhan, the earliest detected infection was in mid-November [2019]. The transition from zoonotic transmission to anthroponotic transmission might have occurred even earlier; probably much earlier. [T Jacob John]
• India: Mumbai to mark those quarantined at home with inky ‘badge of honor’ – Washington Post

Australia

• Australia needs 2000 extra ventilators to cope with ‘catastrophic’ outbreak – Sydney Morning Herald

Africa

• Liberia, Central African Republic, and Sudan, have recently detected their first cases, bringing the total in the WHO’s African region to 327 cases from 27 different countries – CIDRAP

Official Reporting

World Health Organization (WHO)

• WHO SITREP #56 MAR 16

Globally: 167,511 confirmed (13 903 new) 6606 deaths (862 new)
China: 81,077 confirmed (29 new) 3218 deaths (14 new)
Outside of China: 86,434 confirmed (13 874 new) 3388 deaths (848 new) 150 countries/territories/ areas (4 new)

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)