UN agency declares global emergency over virus from China

GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization declared the outbreak sparked by a new virus in China that has been exported to more than a dozen countries as a global emergency Thursday after the number of cases spiked more than tenfold in a week.

The U.N. health agency defines an international emergency as an “extraordinary event” that constitutes a risk to other countries and requires a coordinated international response.

China first informed WHO about cases of the new virus in late December. To date, China has reported more than 7,800 cases including 170 deaths. Eighteen other countries have since reported cases, as scientists race to understand how exactly the virus is spreading and how severe it is.

Experts say there is significant evidence the virus is spreading among people in China and have noted with concern instances in other countries — including the United States, France, Japan, Germany, Canada and Vietnam — where there have also been isolated cases of human-to-human transmission.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted the worrisome spread of the virus between people outside China.

The main reason for this declaration is not because of what is happening in China but because of what is happening in other countries, he said. “”Our greatest concern is the potential for this virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems which are ill-prepared to deal with it.”

“This declaration is not a vote of non-confidence in China...on the contrary, WHO continues to have the confidence in China’s capacity to control the outbreak,” he said.

On Thursday, France confirmed that a doctor who was in contact with a patient with the new virus later became infected himself. The doctor is now being treated in an isolated room at a Paris hospital. Outbreak specialists worry that the spread of new viruses from patients to health workers can signal the virus is becoming adapted to human transmission.

A declaration of a global emergency typically brings greater money and resources, but may also prompt nervous governments to restrict travel and trade to affected countries. The announcement also imposes more disease reporting requirements on countries.

China raised the death toll to 170 on Thursday and more countries reported infections, including some spread locally, as foreign evacuees from China’s worst-hit region returned home to medical tests and even isolation.

Russia announced it was closing its 2,600-mile border with China, joining Mongolia and North Korea in barring crossings to guard against a new viral outbreak. It had been de facto closed because of the Lunar New Year holiday, but Russian authorities said the closure would be extended until March 1.

Train traffic between the countries was halted except for one train connecting Moscow and Beijing, but air traffic between the two countries continued, at least for now. Russia has not confirmed any cases of the virus.

Meanwhile, the United States and South Korea confirmed their first cases of person-to-person spread of the virus. The man in the U.S. is married to a 60-year-old Chicago woman who got sick from the virus after she returned from a trip to Wuhan, the Chinese city that is the epicenter of the outbreak.

There have been cases reported of the infectious virus spreading to others in a household or workplace in China and elsewhere. The case in South Korea was a 56-year-old man who had contact with a patient who was diagnosed with the new virus earlier.

The new virus has now infected more people in China than were sickened there during the 2002-2003 outbreak of SARS, a cousin of the new virus.

The latest figures for mainland China show an increase of 38 deaths and 1,737 cases for a total of 7,736 confirmed cases. Of the new deaths, 37 were in Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital, and one was in the southwestern province of Sichuan. Outside China, there are 82 infections in 18 countries, according to WHO.

China extended its Lunar New Year holiday to Sunday to try to keep people home, but the wave of returning travelers could potentially cause the virus to spread further.

Transport ministry spokesman Wu Chungeng outlined a series of rigorous temperature checks and other “severe measures” to detect possibly infectious passengers. Transport restrictions such as those isolating Wuhan and suspending inter-provincial bus services would remain in place, Wu said.

“It’s definitely very challenging, but we’re confident we can exert effective control,” Wu told reporters at the briefing.

To date, about 99% of the cases are in China. Ryan estimated the death rate of the new virus at 2%, but said the figure was very preliminary. With fluctuating numbers of cases and deaths, scientists are only able to produce a rough estimate of the fatality rate and it’s likely many milder cases of the virus are being missed.

In comparison, the SARS virus killed about 10% of people who caught it. The new virus is from the coronavirus family, which includes those that can cause the common cold as well as more serious illnesses such as SARS and MERS.

Chinese authorities have demanded anyone who traveled from or through Wuhan report to health authorities and self-quarantine themselves for 14 days, the maximum incubation period during which patients can be infectious even if they don’t show symptoms.

China has been largely praised for a swift and effective response to the outbreak, although questions have been raised about the police suppression of what were early on considered mere rumors — a reflection of the one-party Communist state’s determination to maintain a monopoly on information in spite of smart phones and social media.

That stands in stark contrast to the initial response to SARS, when medical reports were hidden as state secrets. The delayed response was blamed for allowing the disease to spread worldwide, killing around 800 people.

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Cheng reported from London. Associated Press writers Elaine Ganley in Paris, Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.

Do masks offer protection from new virus? It depends

SEATTLE (AP) — People around the world are buying up protective face masks in hopes of keeping the new virus from China at bay. Some companies have required them for employees. Schools in South Korea have told parents to equip their children with masks and hand sanitizer when they return from winter vacation.

But do the masks work? It depends.

All viruses are small enough to get through a typical strap-on medical mask, but the germs don’t generally spread through the air one at a time, said Dr. Mark Denison of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. Denison studies SARS and MERS, which are coronaviruses, the same family as the new virus.

Instead, viruses ride from person to person on droplets from a sneeze or cough. Those droplets land on hands and other surfaces, where they are touched by others, who then touch their own eyes, noses or mouths.

Masks can block large droplets from a sneeze or cough. That means they have some value, Denison said.

Also, someone in a mask can’t touch their own nose and mouth. That can prevent the wearer from picking up germs left on surfaces by someone who is sick, he said.

Masks are “a very sensible precaution” while scientists work to study exactly how the new virus is transmitted, said University of Oxford researcher Trudie Lang.

None of this, however, is based on rigorous research. Nobody has compared groups of masked and unmasked people by exposing them to the new germ, Denison said. A 2017 review of studies in health care workers suggested masks offer some protection against SARS, but the authors noted “existing evidence is sparse and findings are inconsistent.”

The best way to avoid getting sick from the new virus is to wash your hands with soap and water. If soap and water aren’t available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer. That’s the same advice for avoiding regular cold and flu viruses.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not currently recommend masks for the general public. Health officials announced Thursday a sixth U.S. case, the husband of a woman who got sick after returning from Wuhan, China, and the first instance of the virus spreading person-to-person in the United States. Health officials said the risk to the general public in the U.S. remains low.

The CDC does recommend masks for people being evaluated for the new virus, people confirmed to have it, household members and caregivers. Airline crew should offer a face mask to a sick traveler, the CDC said.

Health care workers treating patients with the new virus are advised by the CDC to take additional precautions such as goggles or face shields.

UNICEF said Wednesday it has shipped six metric tons of respiratory masks and protective suits to China for use by health workers.

In Tokyo, 21-year-old hotel employee Hasumi Tsuchida said she wears a mask. “I work in a hotel where many guests are from China,” she said. “I worry a bit when foreign guests arrive.”

Masks have been commonly used in some countries when wearers are sick, fighting allergies or on days when air pollution is bad. The new virus has fueled demand for them around the world.

Respilon, a Czech company that makes its “nanofiber” masks in China, sold 700,000 of them last year worldwide. Since last week, it received orders for 7 million more. The problem: It cannot make any because the Chinese government extended the Lunar New Year holiday in a bid to contain the virus’ spread.

In Taiwan, where the holiday is over, factories are up and running. Premier Su Tseng-chang said the government had already distributed 23 million masks and that Taiwan will be able to produce 4 million more a day.

A mask factory in Shanghai has gone into overdrive despite the holiday.

“We are now working 24 hours, two shifts a day, 12 hours shift,” said Liao Huolin, president of the mask company. “We violated labor law,” Liao said, “but the workers understand.”

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AP journalists Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul; Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo; Havovi Todd in London; Taijing Wu in Taipei, Taiwan; Erika Kinetz in Shanghai and Karel Janicek in the Czech Republic contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.