This whole article is worth reading. It sounds like China did all the right things to tamp down this virus.
Because of all these different measures, Aylward said he was stunned to see the number of cases decreasing in China. But this does not mean the outbreak is coming to an end. Even in China, it's hard to predict where the virus may head next.
"What was a rapidly escalating outbreak has plateaued and then come down faster than one would have expected," he said. "You know, if I had COVID-19, I'd want to be treated in China."
The rest of the world is 'simply not ready' for the coronavirus, according to a WHO envoy who just returned from China
Hilary Brueck
9 hours ago
A team of 25 health experts from around the world just returned from a trip to China's Wuhan province, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak.Team lead Bruce Aylward said Tuesday that the "big conclusion for the world is, it's simply not ready."He talked about what conditions are like inside China, where trains roll through stations, makeshift sick bays are built in mere days, and hospitals are erecting walls to keep COVID-19 patients in isolation.
full article at businessinsider.com
excerpt:
COVID-19 appears to be loosening its grip on China, just as other countries around the world are starting to grapple with the effects of person-to-person spread of the deadly virus for the first time on their home turf.
The number of virus cases reported in China continues to decline. Doctors there say they've got beds available for patients, and the 31 affected provinces around the country are beginning to wake up from a quarantine-induced slumber. Some people in Hubei province, at the epicenter of the outbreak, are heading back to their factories. But schools are still closed, and street life in Wuhan, the province's capital, has been relatively quiet for more than a month.
Dr. Bruce Aylward, a physician and public-health expert with the World Health Organization, just returned from an independent fact-finding mission in China, along with more than 20 health counterparts from around the world, including the Chinese.
His message is sobering.
The world is not ready for the novel coronavirus
"Big conclusion for the world is — it's simply not ready," Aylward said just hours after disembarking in Geneva from his China trip. "Folks, this is a rapidly escalating epidemic in different places that we've got to tackle superfast to prevent a pandemic."
That may be difficult in countries that don't have the same disease-surveillance setup as China, a country that was hit hard by the deadly SARS outbreak in 2002-03.
Still, Aylward pointed to a few basic preparedness measures that are being used in China that other countries could mimic to help control the spread of this poorly understood virus.
"Hundreds of thousands of people in China did not get COVID-19 because of this aggressive response," Aylward said, adding that the techniques were "old-fashioned public-health tools" but applied "with a rigor and innovation of approach on a scale that we've never seen in history."
"In 30 years of doing this business, I've not seen this before, nor was I sure it would work," he said.
Here are Aylward's big takeaways from his time in China, where he traced the COVID-19 response.
continues at businessinsider.com
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