reducing deaths protecting health
workers and developing a vaccine those
are the priorities of the World Health
Organization's set out as we go on air
after a two-day meeting of health
experts in Geneva they put together a
global call to action to tackle
coronavirus which they've now renamed
Kovan 19 our health correspondent
Victoria McDonald is in Geneva and
Victoria will come back to that meeting
in a minute but first if you could just
bring us up to date on this breaking
news about the first case in London
please yes we understand that it was a
woman from mainland China who flew into
Britain and who is currently on her way
to st. Thomas's hospital in South London
where they have a specialist center that
is as much as we know at the moment it
was always expected that we would get
cases here and the public health system
is set up very well so we're told to be
able to deal with this and now what
about pwho meeting that you've been
listening into yes they've spent - two
days with more than 400 experts putting
together a blueprint a road map so that
they don't have any gaps they want to
know where the research should be they
want to know how they can prevent deaths
what sort of vaccines need to be
developed they say that they've got four
vaccines that are potential and maybe
two of those might be in human trials
within a few months though not anything
ready for a bait maybe 18 months what is
critical is that they have put together
this plan because in the past there have
been gaps this is what the
director-general had to say just now as
we speak
research groups are meeting with the
leading research funders to start work
immediately on the most pressing
questions some of these issues include
easy to apply Diagnostics the best
approach for infection prevention
potential therapies that could be used
to treat patients existing vaccine
candidates and how to accelerate them
and how to address the info Demick you
can see there there are a number of
questions that they have to
and there are numerous questions that
aren't answered not least why have there
been no cases reported in India
Indonesia and Africa all places where
there is a lot of movement between China
so there are questions queries worries
actually that there haven't been any
reports but this is how the day in the
last two days have unfolded when they
went into hospital they were diagnosed
with novel coronavirus pneumonia
discharged yesterday they are cured and
the disease is now called covert 19 not
much else has changed though experts
still don't have the answers to some
critical questions how contagious the
viruses cannot spread without people
showing symptoms they're even unclear on
the death rate so scientists meeting at
the World Health Organization in Geneva
have developed a blueprint to help speed
up the information they need and to
develop medicines to vaccinate treat and
cure this meeting as a direct result of
lessons learned during the West Africa
Ebola outbreak because while they were
eventually able to develop a vaccine
they also found that they had huge gaps
particularly in research and development
and they don't want that to happen this
time the blueprint outlines how to
mobilize international action produce a
global research agenda accelerate the
development of medical products to
control the outbreak and increase the
understanding of the disease I'm sure
that everyone feels a terrible that so
many lives had to be lost in the West
Africa Ebola outbreak before we could
get our act together we don't want to
see that and in fact even the deaths
that are happening on a daily basis in
China you know you can see that everyone
feels bad about that and wants to do
something to stop it so it doesn't
matter which country is affected somehow
there there seems to be now at least in
the scientific community a desire that a
global public good is something that's
driving people information from previous
coronavirus outbreaks like SARS in the
early 2000s means vaccine developers are
not starting entirely from scratch
people are dying as we speak
or have already died so it's never
timely enough in our next session but
what I see what I hear what I feel but I
also feel myself is that people are
doing that really the very best and
beyond to be as quick as possible with
the learnings from other outbreak
situations in the past like X 1 & 1 or
Ebola this this is being integrated so
that things can go much quicker now room
service with the difference protection
suits delivering food and temperature
checks this is a hotel who Bay Provence
currently in quarantine the Chinese
authorities are claiming that overall
numbers of new cases have covered 19 are
falling the daily number of new
confirmed cases dropped 2015 on Tuesday
from the peak of three thousand eight
hundred and eighty seven recorded on
February the fourth the daily number of
new suspected cases has also load but
medical experts are cautious saying
there are too many gaps in the data to
know how meaningful this is and in Wuhan
the numbers remain overwhelming with
reports of the authorities
requisitioning private hospitals hotels
apartments cars and even face masks so
far more than 45,000 people have been
diagnosed with coffered 19 and there
have been 1170 new decks the numbers
outside China remained tiny but
containment is everything stopping its
spread while scientists seek the
prevention and the cure
Victoria MacDonald reporting from Geneva
says so as we've heard it's been
revealed in the last hour there's a
woman who flew into London from China a
few days ago is being treated for corona
virus Priya the total number of UK cases
to nine she reportedly developed
symptoms after landing at Heathrow and
is now in a central London hospital
meanwhile health officials in Sussex say
that they've traced all close contacts
of two GPS who've been diagnosed with
the illness several schools in the
Brighton area and said that parents can
choose to keep their children at home
I should tell reports a community
watching closely but calmly
in Worthing in brighton and hove people
are taking precautions and asking for
more information on covet 19 known as
the coronavirus and here in Worthing one
of the eight confirmed UK cases works in
the A&E department of this hospital and
just outside people are more aware of
the virus than even yesterday you
worried about a do you think people do
you get a sense that people are getting
a bit more worried in a bit nor panic
getting a bit more worried a bit more
panicking because every time anybody
sneezes or coughs or anything else they
get a bit footnote putting their coats
up over their mouth and everything else
but a lot of people have just got common
colds if we panicked every time they
said there was no nasarah be cautious of
is it really worth it more schools are
taking action parents have been told
they can keep their children home at
this school kids say their classrooms
and nearly half empty 18 have is usually
32 so a lot of but after that the end of
the week isn't it so I suppose just be
careful Pat I called the school and
hopefully yeah they said like nothing
can I wish your you can miss but if yes
it's here it's everywhere so because you
want to say oh yeah so let's take a look
at all the places that have been taking
precautions more than 10 schools across
the region have given pupils the option
of staying home 5 GP surgeries close
briefly most have reopened a community
center and a pub have also been affected
but a lot of this is precautionary and
is related to the suspected but not
confirmed contacts with the virus the
man at the center of the virus outbreak
Steve Walsh has been released from
hospital in a statement he said I'm
happy to be home and feeling well I want
to give a big THANK YOU to the NHS who
have been great throughout and my
thoughts are with everyone around the
world who continues to be affected by
the virus it's good to be back home with
my family
public health England say they've now
traced and given advice to the patients
of the two GPS who had caught the virus
from mr. Walsh
today in the area there's been lots more
awareness and with that a demand for
more certainty some people that I've
spoken to today say they feel that the
council has been missing in action so I
gave the council a call but their
mailbox was full it seems like they've
been inundated with calls so what I did
was went into reception and a
spokeswoman told me that they want to
reiterate that schools are still open
but some schools have given parents the
option of keeping their children home if
they want to and they also reiterate
that if anyone feels unwell at all that
they should call one one one for now
there are no new confirmed cases places
are reopening the man at the center of
it all is back with his family none of
the eight people who are confirmed to
have the kovat 19 virus caught it inside
the UK but health authorities are still
on high alert to return now to our top
story on coronavirus and the outbreak in
Brighton the local MP there green MP
Caroline Lucas joins us now from the
House of Commons Caroline Lucas there's
a lot of panic in Sussex generally what
do you think that parents or the elderly
should do what advice would you give
them well to be very honest I don't
think it's for an MP to give advice I
think it's for public health England to
be giving that advice and what I would
love to see is a lot more proactive
advice being given by public health
England by our council by the NHS I
think at the moment the information is
being put in different places it's not
all in one portal for example and as a
result I think anxiety is growing so
what I would love to see is a much more
coherent consistent proactive public
health campaign both nationally and
locally because you know people are
coming to my office for example they've
got the message about tissues and about
washing their hands but they're still
struggling to understand for example
what self isolation really means so I
want to see a lot more information
coming out from government and indeed
locally - and what do you think it is
that people aren't the authorities
aren't being straight with people I mean
is there a kind of cover-up going on
here is the situation worse or what do
you suspect behind that no I don't think
that at all I think that
people are trying to get the right
balance between reassuring people not in
inducing panic certainly not revealing
any kind of patient confidentiality and
I do recognize that that is a fine line
to tread nonetheless I think that on
this they have actually erred on the
wrong side of the issue by withholding
more information instead of being as
open as they possibly can so for example
the council I would love to see them
have one portal where all of the
information goes because otherwise
people look to the local papers for
example one of the local papers is is
being pretty sensationalist about it I
have to say and I don't think that's
very helpful so if people were able to
get timely accurate information all in
one place from either the council or
from public health England but make sure
you people know which it is then I think
we would have less anxiety rather than
more are the authorities being straight
with you are you getting briefed or not
I am getting briefed I mean obviously I
don't know what I'm not being told but
certainly I am in close contact with
public health England and with the chief
medical officers office and I welcome
that but I just feel that first of all
that the different initiatives aren't
sufficiently joined up so there isn't
consistent messaging coming out my
mailbag is full of people who've got all
kinds of questions about for example
what self isolation really means what
does that mean if they're in a shared
house with other people who aren't their
family so you know perhaps they can't
ask them to go and do their shopping for
them or whatever else so I would like to
see some more practical answers being
addressed and as I say I think
nationally we need to see more of a
joined up public health campaign and I
think we also need to see you know a
real crackdown on the on the stigma that
is already happening I'm hearing about
racism at the University for example I'm
hearing about you know that the kind of
stigma that comes along with the
language around super spreaders there's
no such thing as a super spreader we
shouldn't be using language like that
the person in question actually did
exactly what they should have done as
soon as their symptoms were apparent so
I would like to see us dial down the
sensationalism but I think one of the
ways of doing that it's filling what can
sometimes feel like a bit of an
information vacuum with more information
not less well what are the authorities
telling you for example about what
parents should do about sending kids to
school or have they told you not to
share what they're telling you they
haven't
not to share it explicitly and I'm
sharing what I can but I think that it's
just important that people get that
message direct and so they are saying
that you know if there's someone else
you can take your kids to school then
that's great but they also comes into
the question about you know whether or
not you think you have had sustained
contact with someone who is a confirmed
case so it's it is a complex set of
messages but I still think a lot more
could be done to make that clearer on
the websites and through a broader
public health campaign if you've got a
child you know and you know that someone
in the school as is the case in the Van
Dien school for example says a person
from our school community not being
explicit who if you're a parent of that
school should you send your children to
school there well I I want to quote
public health England not myself I don't
think MP should be making those
judgments but public health England have
said very clearly that they think it is
fine for students to continue to go to
that school so I would simply point them
to that but the very fact that people
are asking that question suggests to me
that that public health message is not
getting out as loudly and clearly as it
should it also seems to be very
different ways of treating this disease
within your constituency for example
Worthing hospitals so that's where one
of the eight infected workers worked and
that hasn't been closed or disinfected
as far as we know whereas the GP
surgeries have is that discrepancy a
problem as far as you're concerned I
think it does beg questions and that's
my point really that if we had a portal
where people could go and see what's
going on and why it's happening I mean
when it came to the issue of you know
closing health centres and so forth I
understand that that had to be done so
that a deep-clean could could happen but
I also heard from public health England
that it was not up there advice that
that health center her closed so you
know there will be discrepancies in the
way different people deal with with the
problem all I'm asking for is for
consistent information to be available
to people so that when they notice these
discrepancies they can go on to a
website and find out if there's a reason
for it and we know from the w-h-o just
now that we what we don't know is
whether it we're at the start at the
middle or the end of this outbreak and
could the NHS in your area cope with a
dramatic escalation in cases do you
think I'm not a word that the NHS could
cope anywhere with a dramatic increase
in cases we know that the
chesses is you know at the very limits
of what it can sustain just about across
the country so that is a real worry on
the other hand given that most of the
advice essentially is to to stay at home
not to be turning up to a any phone one
one one if you think you've got symptoms
don't go somewhere where you might be
able to spread the disease further
hopefully some of the the pressure on
the NHS won't be directly from people
going to any Caroline Lucas thanks very
much for joining us Matt thanks Kay now
let's go back to Geneva and the
headquarters of the WH o dr. Sylvia
Browne is the director of pandemic and
epidemic diseases at the World Health
Organization thanks for coming on the
program I mean how far are we away from
a global pandemic at the moment as far
as you know so currently you know we
have the epicenter in Hubei Province and
then few epidemic fossae in in China but
outside China currently we have around
440 cases and so we cannot say it's a
pandemic even if we have those few
clusters of cases in 24 countries but in
each of its these countries the contact
are traceable we know the chain of
transmission and the authorities are
reporting regularly the cases but things
are under control and we have even
information from Singapore for instance
and they are testing much more cases
than necessary for this kind of a
situation beyond I would say the case
definition just to check if there is
transmission that they would not have
detected but so far they say that for
all the tests they have been doing I
mean they are all negative okay but so
for instance we've had no report of
cases in India in Indonesia in a whole
continent of Africa these are all places
that are very close links to China the
fact that out any cases reported there
is that reassuring to you or alarming
because they might be missed so we had
had a report from
India for instance and they are those
countries are on high alert so they are
reporting alerts but when the testers
they showed that the tests are negative
so far and with regard to Africa for
instance before they didn't have the
capacity to test but recently we have
shipped diagnostic tests to those
countries so now more and more countries
in Africa are able to test for this
virus and it's not completely I mean
surprising that you don't have cases in
Africa because when we did at the
beginning of the outbreak statistics on
the intensity of air travel from who and
to other countries Africa didn't come
first and what the country who came
first where Japan Thailand and indeed
this is where we have found the first
imported exported cases shouldn't he
have called an emergency earlier maybe
at the very beginning of the year or
even at the end of the last year so the
difficulty when you make this kind of
decision I mean the emergency committee
met and the initial data we had there
were very few cases outside China so
really the most of the cases were in
Hebei Province and so at the time they
met initially we had I think if I
remember well seven countries reporting
one or two cases so at that time the
committee decided that it was they
didn't have enough data to conclude that
it was already an emergency but when
they met one week later with more data
and then we had seen more cases exported
so then they decided that now it's time
to raise the alarm and and ask other
country to get ready to receive more
cases so it's evolving situation and the
decision you make one day may change the
next day and hopefully soon we will be
able to see a trend towards decrease and
then we can make also other decisions on
this outbreak indeed I mean it you know
it's hard to know what to believe I know
there many questions you're trying to
answer that you haven't been able to
answer yet but for instance the the man
you know who was in charge of the SARS
virus in Hong Kong they
eminent neurologist has argued that as
many as 60% of the global population
could be infected by this virus is that
an outlandish scenario or is that a
realistic scenario as far as you're
concerned so professor Lynx that indeed
that we could reach this this proportion
of population affected if nothing is
done but it's not what is happening I
mean many things are done to stop the
virus first and or slow the spread of
this virus so and this is what we are
currently seeing I mean the number of
cases remain increase but stable stable
stabilized and so we don't see an
explosive epidemic as we could have
feared at the beginning of this outbreak
so the measure that are taken are really
about slowing down the spread and if
possible eliminate the virus number is
of course a global transport hub there
were lots of flights coming in from
China we've heard tonight that indeed
there is a single case of someone who's
been diagnosed with a virus in London
how worried should we be in this city
for instance I think what is important
is to really understand that there is a
risk of importation and further
transmission especially in large urban
settings because there is a lot of
people a lot of movement however now we
know much better the virus we know what
can be the transferability is the
severity and so there are things we can
do to protect the people especially the
ones who are most at risk to get the
infection and a severe disease so I
think it's time just to confront the
threat and just put in place the right
measure to mitigate this impact and just
in one very brief line it is still the
elderly or the infirmary most at-risk
care children for instance a much lesser
biscuit seems yes is it true we see that
among the cases most of the cases that
are in elderly population or people with
under
conditions and so this age group and a
group of people need to be better
protected we see mild cases in children
but usually children so far we have not
seen a huge number of severe cases in
children so it seemed that indeed severe
cases are much more in elderly