Tulane Outbreak Daily | March 19, 2020

Featured Headlines

• Africa’s confirmed cases are currently low – around 640 – there is no reason for complacency. Health experts warn that strained public health systems in Africa could become quickly overwhelmed if the virus takes hold. WHO’s recommendation is mass gatherings should be avoided and  expect that the worst could happen.

• President Trump Signs Coronavirus Emergency Aid Package – NPR The legislation passed Wednesday provides paid sick and family leave for some for U.S. workers impacted by the illness, expands unemployment assistance, includes nutrition assistance and increases resources for testing. Efforts are already underway to put together a third, larger relief measure that could total $1 trillion.
• Shortages of face masks, swabs and basic supplies pose a new challenge to coronavirus testing – Washington Post local and state officials complain that shortages of everyday supplies are disrupting efforts to sharply ramp up testing, which is key to identifying the spread of disease. The scarcity is hampering both the ability of health-care workers in hospitals to draw samples to send to laboratories and the ability of those laboratories to confirm infection.CDC attempted to address the mask shortage by recommending the use of bandannas, if necessary.
• FDA Focuses on Safety of Regulated Products While Scaling Back Domestic Inspections – FDA Postponing most foreign facility inspections through April,temporarily postponed all domestic routine surveillance facility inspections.
• Global COVID-19 total tops 200,000; WHO unveils massive treatment study – CIDRAP
• China Hits a Coronavirus Milestone: No New Local Infections – NYT The new cases reported on Thursday involved people who had come to China from elsewhere
• Trump Invokes A Cold War Relic, The Defense Production Act, For Coronavirus Shortages – NPR A law dating back to the early years of the Cold War to address serious shortages of supplies needed for responding to the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S.
• How the U.S. can defeat coronavirus: Heed Asia’s lessons from past epidemics – Washington Post Dedicated resources, sophisticated tracking and a responsible population have kept coronavirus infections and deaths in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore relatively low. South Korea, with more deaths, has led the way in widespread testing. Now, after seeing unprecedented increases of imported cases, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore have all moved to implement travel bans, essentially closing their borders to nonresidents or mandating 14-day quarantines, to prevent a new uptick of cases.

• Links to individual European Country MOH websites
• Italy:  reported 4,207 more cases, along with 475 more deaths – CIDRAP Respective totals to 35,713 and 2,978, according to the health ministry’s latest update.The fatality rate is estimated at 11%, higher than the 1% to 2% reported in neighboring countries.
• Spain: Reports 1,390 new cases – CIDRAP
• France: Reports 1,404 new cases – CIDRAP
• Germany: Reports 1,042 new cases – CIDRAP Chancellor Angela Merkel said the country’s COVID-19 outbreak is its biggest challenge since World War II.
• UK: Reports a total of 2,626 cases – CIDRAP UK’s prime minister announced that schools would close on Mar 20 until further notice.
• Montenegro: Reports first cases in two women who had traveled abroad – CIDRAP

Asia

• South Korea MOH Updates
• India: Cautious government involves private sector in treating patients – Economic Times

Australia

• Australia has reported about 500 cases, 6 of them fatal – CIDRAP Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison today declared a “human biosecurity emergency” and urged citizens to avoid traveling out of the country. The declaration gives the government extra powers to order lockdowns, curfews, and quarantines. In another new measure, the country banned nonessential indoor gatherings of 100 or more people.

South America

• Colombia: The President yesterday declared a state of emergency and ordered older people to stay in their homes starting Mar 20 and extending until May 31.  – CIDRAP People age 70 and older can leave their homes only for food, medications, medical care, and banking. The country has reported 75 cases so far, most of them linked to Europe or United States travel.

Middle East

• Iran: Reported 1,192 new cases, plus 147 more deaths, raising its respective totals to 17,391 and 533 – CIDRAP
• Iran: Country faces catastrophic death toll from coronavirus – DW Beyond China and Italy, Iran has been hardest hit by COVID-19 — but it could get a whole lot worse, thanks to a lack of international aid, government mismanagement and nobody knowing quite who’s in charge.

Africa