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The WHO Director General has released a statement on a new paper from China, detailing over 44,000 of their cases.
Prof Jimmy Whitworth, Professor of International Public Health, London School of hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said:
“The recent paper from China describing over 44,000 cases is very welcome and shows a new global willingness to share information openly and quickly.
“The information confirms previous impressions that more than 4 out of every 5 cases of COVID-19 are mild with a relatively quick and full recovery. However 14% of cases were severe and 5% of patients had critical illness. 2 out of every 100 patients died, with older patients, those over 60, faring worse.
“As seen in China, this virus can spread rapidly in populations, and can cause a major strain on health services simply by the sheer number of cases. We can hope that the reports of falling numbers of new cases in China does show that the epidemic has peaked in Hubei province, but it is still too early to be sure that this is so. In the meantime health services in other countries need to remain vigilant to identify all cases and to prevent onward transmission to their populations.”
All our previous output on this subject can be seen at this weblink:
http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/tag/covid-19
The SMC also produced a Factsheet on COVID-19 which is available here:
https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/smc-novel-coronavirus-factsheet/
Declared interests
Prof Jimmy Whitworth: “No conflicts to declare.”