Fear of a coronavirus pandemic has increased with the increase in new cases outside of China. The director of the World Health Organization (WHO) has asked the world to prepare for a “potential pandemic” due to the outbreak of coronavirus COVID-19. Although the sudden increase in new cases of coronavirus in Italy, South Korea and Iran has attracted attention, the truth is that the experts of the WHO joint mission have concluded that in China the epidemic has declined continuously from the beginning. February, which “should give countries hope that this virus can be contained,” explained the head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Low mortality rate
In the same way, despite the more than 80,000 cases of contagion around the planet, the WHO announced the fatality rate of the virus: between 2% and 4% in Wuhan (China) and just 0.7% out of this area. Like any respiratory infection, the elderly are the most vulnerable to the most serious forms of the disease.
According to Adhanom, people infected by the coronavirus outbreak without serious symptoms have a healing time of about two weeks; those most severely affected by the virus recover within three to six weeks.
Worry in the world
Many people are concerned about whether the current outbreak will turn into a pandemic. “This is a new disease, and our understanding is changing rapidly. We will continue to analyze information on current and new cases ” , explained the WHO. This is the weakest front we have: ignorance. “We do not yet know many details about the 2019-nCoV mortality rate, and studies are ongoing at this time.”
Coronavirus cases in Spain
According to the Center for the Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies, on January 31, the first confirmed case of COVID-19 coronavirus was detected in Spain: a German citizen On February 9, a second case was confirmed in a person residing in Mallorca who previously had had contact with another case detected in the United Kingdom. Both have already been discharged. Finally, an Italian doctor -from Lombardy- who was on vacation in Tenerife, has tested positive for coronavirus, becoming the third case registered in Spain . Hence, the quarantine was decreed in the hotel where the Italian tourist was staying. A thousand clients are awaiting the tests.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, today presides over an inter-ministerial meeting on the coronavirus, and the Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, will hold a meeting with the health advisers of all the Autonomous Communities to coordinate the protocols of action in the face of the new data from expansion of the coronavirus in northern Italy (which has become the third country in the world with the most affected patients).
The Health Ministry has activated a free telephone line, number 900 112 061, from which a Nursing team will respond to requests for information from citizens on prevention measures, potential forms of contagion and fake news related to the virus, such as the one that says that the virus was created by China in “a secret laboratory” to contain the growth of the population.
