"We have to do everything possible to prepare for a potential pandemic." The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has assumed on Monday that it is very likely that what is today an epidemic, Covid-19 or Wuhan coronavirus, becomes somewhat greater . "We cannot paralyze the world and it is unrealistic to say that the transmission between countries can be stopped. There will probably be epidemics in several, but they can be contained," said Michael Ryan, director of the emergency program of the international organization.
The scenario has changed rapidly in a few days. It has happened to contemplate how the cases in China seemed to be contained and how in the rest of the world the contagions were very scarce, to uncontrolled outbreaks in Italy, North Korea and Iran. Ghebreyesus has insisted that they can be contained and that the scenario continues to be an epidemic, both by number of cases and deaths outside, but at the same time he has asked countries and communities to prepare for the extension of the coronavirus: "No it is a matter of black or white, yes or no. Each country has to make its own risk containment plan. The priorities are to protect health workers, that communities mobilize to take special care of the elderly and with pathologies [among them there have been more than 80% of deaths so far] and protect the most vulnerable countries by containing the epidemic in which they can do so. "
The situation that opens is a pure mystery and every minute counts. The simple fact of delaying the arrival of the northern countries a few weeks can be a great relief, Ryan said, since the seasonal flu will be declining and the health systems will be more freed from this burden to be able to attend to the possible patients of Covid -19. "We cannot know what will happen, if it is going to be stopped, to become a seasonal disease or a full-blown global pandemic," he said.
In the almost daily appearance that the top officials of WHO offer to the media to report on the latest details of the virus, they have also explained the results of the expedition of experts who have been in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak. The good news is that the situation has not been out of control there. The genetic sequence of the coronavirus remains stable, the recovery time ranges from two weeks of the mildest patients to between three and six of the most severe. The percentage of deaths is, for the moment, between 2% and 4% in Wuhan and around 0.7% outside.