Tulane Outbreak Daily | March 18, 2020

Featured Headlines

• Coronavirus confirmed in all U.S. states as death toll rises and world faces long-term turmoil – Washington Post
• Covid-19 hits doctors, nurses and EMTs, threatening health system – Washington Post Health care workers have been put at risk by the nature of their jobs, but by shortages of protective equipment such as N95 face masks and inefficient diagnostics, which was delayed for weeks while the virus spread around the country undetected.
• World Health Organization holds press conference on the coronavirus pandemic – MSNBC
• A chilling scientific paper helped upend U.S. and U.K. coronavirus strategies -Washington Post [Link to Study]
• COVID-19 spread is fueled by ‘stealth transmission’ – Live Science People with COVID-19 who didn’t get diagnosed, likely because they didn’t feel very sick, were the source of at least two-thirds of documented COVID-19 cases in China in the early days of the outbreak. [Link to Study]
• Two Women Fell Sick From the Coronavirus. One Survived. – NYT  Two young female healthcare professionals in Wuhan, China timeline of onset and outcomes.
• New Coronavirus Stable for Hours on Surfaces – NIH
• We’re not going back to normal – MIT Technology Review Social distancing is here to stay for much more than a few weeks. It will upend our way of life, in some ways forever.
• U.S. border with Canada closing to ‘non-essential traffic’ in effort to slow coronavirus spread – Washington Post
• Health care workers getting sicker from coronavirus than other patients – CNN
• [Opinion] The Single Most Important Lesson From the 1918 Influenza – NYT Containment — the attempt to limit spread of a virus and even eliminate it — has failed.

• Links to individual European Country MOH websites
• Italy: Reports 3,526 new infections, 345 new deaths, boosting its total to 31,506 cases – CIDRAP  Hospitals overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients in northern Italy and facilities elsewhere in the country feeling pressure from rising activity outside the main hot spots, Italian government officials today announced that this year’s graduating medical students will skip qualifying tests, allowing them to start working 8 or 9 months earlier than expected.
• Spain: Total cases climbed to 11,178  with 1,978 new cases and 491 more deaths. 43% of the country’s cases are from Madrid – CIDRAP
• France: Cases increased to 7,730, with the addition of 1,097 new cases reported – CIDRAP
• Germany: Reporting 1,723 new cases, raising its total to 7,156 cases, 12 of them fatal – CIDRAP Berlin announced a plan enlist the armed forces to build a 1,000-bed hospital in the city to treat serious cases.
• UK: Manchester prisoner tests positive for coronavirus – 13 other inmates are in isolation as a precaution – Manchester Evening News
• EU Press Conference on Coronavirus

Asia

• South Korea MOH Updates
• South Korea: Nursing hospital reports alarming uptick in cases – Washington Post A nursing hospital in Daegu raising alarm about the possible reversal of a downward trend in infections. 74 new infections can be traced to the local hospital, which specializes in care for elderly patients with Alzheimer’s disease.
• Southeast Asia Region: WHO urged countries to step up aggressive response measures – CIDRAP  The number of confirmed cases rose to 480, including 8 deaths. Within the region’s 11 countries, 8 have reported cases, most of them from Thailand (177), Indonesia (134), and India (125). More clusters are being confirmed.Singh also warned that some countries are clearly headed toward community transmission, trends that need to be reversed.In another part of Asia, Malaysia reported 120 more cases, raising its total to 673, and its first 2 deaths, Anadolu Agency news reported today. The country is experiencing a resurgence of cases following a mass gathering at a mosque outside of Kuala Lumpur. The country recently announced restrictions on religious activities through the end of the month.
• Japan: Yet to hit peak in coronavirus infections – Kyodo News

South America

• Brazil: The number of confirmed cases has jumped to 291, and reported its first death of a 62-year-old man with underlying health conditions in Sao Paulo – CIDRAP

Middle East

• Iran: Coronavirus deaths spike to 1,135 – AP

Africa

• Mauritius restricts travel to the country – BBC
• South Africa: Hundreds stranded on ships off Cape Town – BBC

Official Reporting

World Health Organization (WHO)

• WHO SITREP #57 MAR 17

SITUATION IN NUMBERS total (new) cases in last 24 hours Globally: 179,111 confirmed (11,525) 7,426 deaths (475) Western Pacific Region: 91 779 confirmed (289) 3357 deaths (23) European Region: 64 188 confirmed (8506) 3108 deaths (428) South-East Asia: 508 confirmed (124) 9 deaths (2) Eastern Mediterranean Region: 16 786 confirmed (330) 873 deaths (3) Regions of the Americas: 4910 confirmed (2234) 68 deaths (18) African Region: 228 confirmed (42) 4 deaths (1)

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)

As of March 17, 2020

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