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WHO: Countries Must Take Steps to 'Push Down' Coronavirus
Despite vast improvements in countries such as China and South Korea, the World Health Organization said Tuesday the coronavirus outbreak is "far from over" in the region.
"This is going to be a long-term battle and we cannot let down our guard. We need every country to keep responding according to their local situation," WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific Dr. Takeshi Kasai said at a briefing.
China reported one new death and 48 new cases Tuesday, none of them locally transmitted, while South Korea reported 125 new cases.
Kasai and experts at a separate WHO briefing stressed that governments need to be taking active measures and maintain pressure to halt the spread of the virus.
WHO Emergencies Program Executive Director Michael Ryan said officials hope countries currently seeing the worst effects, including Italy and Spain, will soon see their situations stabilize. But he said the virus will not stop itself, requiring governments to act to "push down" the number of infections.
Coronavirus Technical Lead Maria Van Kerkhove said those public efforts must include testing, isolation, finding contacts and quarantining those contacts.
Italy reported 812 more deaths Monday, bringing its total to 11,591, while Spain surpassed China in terms of overall cases. Only the United States has more cases that Italy and Spain.
Ryan also cited the shortage of protective masks for health care workers, and reiterated WHO advice that generally healthy people should not wear masks.
"There is no specific evidence to suggest that the wearing of masks by the mass population has any potential benefit. In fact, there's some evidence to suggest the opposite in the misuse of wearing a mask properly or fitting it properly," he said.
Although some medical researchers endorse face masks and say effective ones can be homemade, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says they are ineffective in filtering small particles from the air and may not help if an infected person sneezes or coughs nearby.
US states ask for help
The iconic Empire State Building in New York City lit up Monday night in the form of a red and white siren to honor emergency workers "on the front line of the fight."
[1/2] We'll never stop shining for you.
— Empire State Building (@EmpireStateBldg) March 30, 2020
Starting tonight through the COVID-19 battle, our signature white lights will be replaced by the heartbeat of America with a white and red siren in the mast for heroic emergency workers on the front line of the fight. pic.twitter.com/OYkblLTRHN
New York is the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, with more than 900 deaths as hospitals struggle to cope with the influx of patients.
New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo made a nationwide appeal Monday for more help, asking doctors and nurses in areas without an urgent coronavirus situation to travel to New York to help.
On the other side of the country, California Governor Gavin Newsom turned to retired doctors and nurses, as well as medical students, to boost the health care response. He announced Monday the number of people hospitalized with coronavirus infections had nearly tripled over the course of four days.
Overall, the number of U.S. cases topped 164,000 with more than 3,100 deaths as of early Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University.
March 31, 2020 at 05:49PM
