The government prepares to evacuate Americans at the center of the epidemic
The secretary of Health, Alex Azar, announced that at the moment there has been no contagion in the five cases of coronavirus registered in the United States and asked China for more cooperation and transparency on the level of propagation so that the degree of severity can be determined of the epidemic after the death toll soared.
“It is important that the country knows that it is a serious potential threat to health but we still do not know what we have to know about the virus, but that does not mean that we do not have to prepare,” said the secretary of health, who recommended Americans who avoid non-essential trips to China.
Azar said the fact that there is more than 100 dead in China is “serious” but he stressed that the majority of the victims were old people and their health compromised.
In the meantime, The United States prepares to evacuate Americans from the epicenter of the epidemic for the coronavirus that has caused worldwide alarm after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raised the alert level on Monday night, as did the World Health Organization (WHO), after confirmation that in the last 24 hours the death toll will rise to 106, despite the drastic measures taken by the Chinese government to contain the contagion.
On Tuesday, the number of fatalities due to the disease rises to 106, an increase compared to 80 the previous day, in addition the cases rose to 4,515, compared to 2,744 on Monday, of which 976 are considered serious, they reported officials of the National Health Commission of China.
Hong Kong has canceled Chinese train and ferry connections on Tuesday to contain the disease’s progress. In addition, he has urged residents of the region to return from the continent as soon as possible and to quarantine their homes for 14 days.
In this regard, the State Department said it was sending a chartered flight to retrieve US government personnel deployed in the city, while Wuhan, the city of 11 million people where the outbreak is believed to have originated, remains closed to stop the virus.
An official from that department informed NBC News that, since there is space available on the plane, some citizens will also be offered seats and that they will give priority to those who are at the highest risk of contracting the virus if they remain in Wuhan.
The plane is expected to leave Wuhan on Wednesday morning, local time.
The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services said in a statement that all people on board will be examined by Chinese and US officials before leaving Wuhan, and that no one with symptoms can address. Passengers will also be examined once they arrive in Anchorage, the agency said.
Similar measures have been taken by South Korea and Japan that announced that they will send charter flights to Wuhan to get their citizens out of the city. About 700 South Korean citizens are expected to be evacuated later this week. The Japanese authorities said they will send their first charter plane to Wuhan on Tuesday night.
Other nations, including France, Australia and Spain, seek to get their citizens out of Wuhan.
The virus has now spread to four continents with new cases that arise every day outside of China, even in the US where five cases have been confirmed so far.
Germany also became the second country in Europe to confirm a case of coronavirus on Monday.
Those infected transmit the virus before symptoms appearsaid China’s health minister on Sunday, complicating efforts to contain the outbreak that already extends to 14 nations outside of China
For its part, WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier stressed that the rapid increase in cases is not necessarily a reason to reconvene an emergency committee in order to study the declaration of an international emergency, option that was provisionally highlighted last week.
“Three criteria are required: that it is an extraordinary event, that it constitutes a risk of rapid expansion in other countries, and that it requires an international coordinated response,” he said, clarifying that despite the non-declaration of global alert there is already an answer coordinated worldwide.
He reiterated that the average profile of deaths from coronavirus continue to be people with previous health complications, many of them of advanced age, and confirmed that the incubation period, in which the coronavirus can be transmitted to other people, is between one and fourteen days.
Among the recommendations to the general public regarding the coronavirus, Lindmeier advised those who show symptoms such as cough, fever or headaches, similar to those of a flu, to “isolate themselves and seek medical help.”
On the possibility that the virus is transmitted by indirect contact (for example, that a patient touches a surface and it is contaminated), he clarified that it could occur if the contact is immediate but not after a short period of time.
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