GENEVA: A top expert at the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Tuesday walked back her earlier assertion that transmission of the coronavirus by people who do not have symptoms is “very rare.”
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, who made the original comment at a WHO briefing on Monday, said that it was based on just two or three studies and that it was a “misunderstanding” to say asymptomatic transmission is rare globally, foreign media reported. “I was just responding to a question, I wasn’t stating a policy of WHO or anything like that,” she said.
Dr Van Kerkhove said that the estimates of transmission from people without symptoms come primarily from models, which may not provide an accurate representation. “That’s a big open question, and that remains an open question,” she said.Scientists had sharply criticised the WHO for creating confusion on the issue, given the far-ranging public policy implications. Governments around the world have recommended face masks and social distancing measures because of the risk of asymptomatic transmission. A range of scientists said Dr Van Kerkhove’s comments did not reflect the current scientific research. “All of the best evidence suggests that people without symptoms can and do readily spread SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19,” scientists at the Harvard Global Health Institute said in a statement on Tuesday. Dr Van Kerkhove and other WHO experts reiterated the importance of physical distancing, personal hygiene, testing, tracing, quarantine and isolation in controlling the pandemic.
“This is far from over,” van Kerkhove said.
The coronavirus pandemic has killed at least 411,088 people worldwide since it surfaced in China late last year, according to international media reports. More than seven million cases have been registered in 196 countries and territories. On Tuesday as many as 3,200 people died from the deadly virus.
The United States is the worst-hit country with 113,568 deaths, followed by Britain with 40,883, Brazil with 37,840, Italy with 34,043 and France with 29,209 fatalities.
Earlier, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told an online briefing urged countries to press on with efforts to contains the virus.
“More than six months into the pandemic, this is not the time for any country to take its foot off the pedal,” he said.
In response to a question on China, WHO’s top emergencies expert, Dr. Mike Ryan, said retrospective studies of how the outbreak has been addressed could wait, adding: “We need to focus now on what we are doing today to prevent second peaks.”
Ryan also said infections in central American countries including Guatemala were still on the rise, and that they were “complex” epidemics.
“I think this is a time of great concern,” he said, calling for strong government leadership and international support for the region.
Brazil is now one of the hotspots of the pandemic, with the second highest number of confirmed cases, behind only the United States, and a death toll that last week surpassed Italy’s.
A UN rights expert warns that food insecurity in North Korea is deepening and some people are "starving" after it closed the border with China and took other steps to tackle an outbreak. The hermetic totalitarian state is yet to confirm a single case of COVID-19.
The chief prosecutor in Paris said that he has opened a probe into the French state´s handling of the outbreak, with possible charges including "involuntary homicide" and "endangering life".
The investigation does not target either President Emmanuel Macron or government ministers.
The Mediterranean island of Cyprus, desperate to save its summer holiday season, has welcomed its first tourists after nearly three months on lockdown, with flights scheduled from Israel, Greece and Bulgaria.
In India, health experts are warning of a looming shortage of hospital beds and doctors to treat patients as the country grapples with a sharp surge of infections. India reported 10,000 new infections in the past 24 hours, for a total of at least 266,500, and has surpassed Spain to become one of the five countries with the highest caseloads.
Moscow’s tough lockdown ended abruptly on Tuesday as a nationwide vote on extending President Vladimir V Putin’s rule loomed, even as the Russian capital continued to report more than 1,000 daily new coronavirus cases.
People in Moscow flocked to streets and parks after authorities in the Russian capital lifted restrictions, even as the country registered 8,595 new cases and 171 deaths, taking its total toll past 6,000.
Barbershops, beauty parlors, veterinary clinics and photography studios were allowed to reopen on Tuesday, and the city’s intricate system of digital permits for leaving one’s house stopped operating. A day earlier, Mayor Sergei S. Sobyanin said the spread of the coronavirus in the capital had slowed to the point that the city’s shelter-in-place measures, some of the world’s most stringent outside of China, could be lifted.
Libraries and agencies including real estate, advertising and consulting will be allowed to reopen next Tuesday, Sobyanin said, along with museums and zoos as long as they sell tickets online. Sporting events will reopen to spectators at 10 percent capacity and restaurants and cafes will be able to serve customers seated outdoors. Gyms, pools and kindergartens will fully open on June 23.
A grand parade coupled with a renewed sense of optimism thanks to relaxed lockdown measures could help Mr. Putin drum up much-needed enthusiasm for the July 1 vote, analysts said. Here’s what else is happening around the world:
· Residents of Spain will have to continue to wear face masks even after the country officially lifts its state of emergency on June 21, the health minister, Salvador Illa, announced Tuesday, as the government presented its “new normalcy” plan. Citizens must “learn to cohabit with the virus” and maintain hygiene rules “until we conclusively defeat the virus,” Illa told a news conference.
· In France, where the virus has killed over 29,000 people, the Paris prosecutor has opened an investigation into dozens of complaints over the authorities’ response to the coronavirus epidemic. The investigation will focus on complaints against officials or institutions on issues like mask shortages to determine if any crimes were committed. But neither President Emmanuel Macron, who is immune to prosecution, nor his government are targets.
The British government on Tuesday abandoned plans to bring back all primary school students before the summer holidays amid growing concerns that filling up classrooms could lead to new infections.
The Department of Education had aimed for all primary schoolchildren to spend four weeks in school before the summer holidays, but many schools have said they are already full and cannot accommodate more children safely.
