February 18 coronavirus news

A vaccine for the novel coronavirus could take 12 to 18 months to develop, according to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general for the World Health Organization.

But a vaccine is preparing for “the worst situation,” he said, and for now, long-term preparation needs to be balanced with immediate public health solutions that contain the virus and keep the fatality rate low.

“This is a window of opportunity that should not be missed,” Tedros said Tuesday during a press briefing.

Dr. Sylvie Briand, director of WHO's Infectious Hazards Management Department, said there could be a candidate for a coronavirus vaccine in about 16 weeks, but it would still require months of development and trials to prove its effectiveness in humans. Briand said there’s been no new data on vaccine development since WHO’s coronavirus research meeting earlier this month.

Dr. Mike Ryan, WHO executive director of Health Emergencies Programme, said many lives can be saved in the coming months even without a vaccine, so immediate investment is needed to support health systems and provide treatment.

After a two-week quarantine aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan, some American passengers were sent back to the states. However, for some of the 13 who either tested positive or had a high likelihood of testing positive, they must make one more stop in Nebraska.

They're heading to the Omaha-based Nebraska Medicine/University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). The unit is no stranger to treating patients with difficult diseases.

The special 10-bed biocontainment unit is a state-of-the-art facility that has been doing this kind of complicated work for nearly 15 years. 

It is a secured area with its own ventilation system that is isolated from the rest of the hospital and is staffed by people with specialized training in communicable diseases. It had been commissioned by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2005.

In 2014, the unit successfully treated three patients with Ebola, including Dr. Rick Sacra, an American physician from Massachusetts who got sick while working with Ebola patients in Africa.

By the end of this week, 40 countries in Africa and 29 in the Americas are expected to have the ability to detect the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said today during a press briefing.

Many countries had been sending samples to others for testing, which can take days. Now, they’ll be able to get results themselves within 24 to 48 hours, he said.

WHO has also sent personal protective equipment to 21 countries and is preparing to send it to another 106 in the comings weeks, Tedros said. 

After several deaths of healthcare employees as a result of the novel coronavirus, the Chinese government is under criticism for how it is treating its medical workers.

Two of the most notable deaths include those of Li Wenliang, the whistleblower doctor credited for warning about the virus, and Liu Zhiming, director of the Wuchang hospital in Wuhan, the city at the center of the outbreak.

CNN's Kristie Lu Stout reports that, "China says it will designate all of them — the frontline doctors, nurses and medics who died while fighting the virus — as martyrs of the epicenter of the outbreak."

As of Friday, China's National Health Commission (NHC) says at least 1,716 healthcare workers nationwide had been infected by the virus.

President Trump is being briefed daily on the coronavirus outbreak, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham this morning.

She appeared on Fox News where she addressed a variety of topics, incluiding the outbreak. She touted the administration’s “unprecedented steps” to curb travel from China.

Grisham said a task force, led by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, is “meeting twice every day.”

Hong Kong has reported one more confirmed case of the novel coronavirus on Tuesday, bringing the citywide total to 62 cases, according to the Hong Kong Health Department.

The new case is a 58-year-old man who developed fever and chills on February 11. According to the Health Department, he traveled to Zhongshan, China, and Macao during the incubation period. He is currently in stable condition.

A British family who contracted coronavirus in the French ski resort Contamines-Montjoie has been discharged from hospital, French Health Minister Olivier Veran told journalists in Paris on Tuesday. 

The British nationals, including a 9-year-old child, were infected after coming into contact with Steve Walsh, a British man who traveled to the resort from a conference in Singapore, where he got the coronavirus. They were hospitalized in Grenoble. 

The health minister also gave an update on French citizens onboard the Diamond Princess ship in Yokohama, saying that a third French national tested positive for coronavirus on board the cruise liner.  According to Veran the third person does not reside in France and has been taken into the care of the Japanese authorities. There have been no demands to repatriate the person so far.

Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Programme, said the organization is still not classifying the coronavirus outbreak a "pandemic."

“I think we need to be extremely cautious in using the term ‘pandemic.’ We had lots of controversies during the H1N1 situation, around when it was pandemic and when it wasn’t pandemic, and I think we need to be careful,” Ryan said yesterday.

Ryan continued:

Dr. Sylvie Briand, director of WHO's Infectious Hazards Management Department, agreed on the need to be cautious with wording.

“The difficulty with certain words is that their interpretation varies, and for [the] general public, very often ‘pandemic’ is really the worst-case scenario," Briand said. "And so I think we need, before qualifying the event as the worst-case scenario, we need a lot more evidence and a lot more data. And so that’s why I think we need to be cautious, because it can really create panic unnecessarily."

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson offered his sympathies to those affected by the coronavrus outbreak in China, in a phone call with the Chinese President Xi Jinping today.

President Xi thanked the UK for its support and donations of vital medical equipment, according to a readout by Downing Street. 

Here's the rest of the readout: