At Tuesday’s daily briefing by the World Health Organization on COVID-19, the WHO’s Operations Support and Logistics Chief says they are concerned by what he calls the first initial panic reaction around PPE, which is Personal Protective Equipment.
The WHO had earlier indicated concern over a severe disruption to the global supply of PPE due to rising demand, misuse or hoarding. In addition, a report out, indicates India has restricted the export of 26 pharmaceutical ingredients in medicines because they haven’t been able to get the ingredients from China.
Paul Molinaro says when it comes to the potential shortage of medicines, whether it is through export restrictions, or through Chinese manufacturing still trying to come back on line after the disruption, they are setting up a group to look at further repercussions in the market.
The World Health Organization’s Executive Director of Health Emergencies Programmes says every public health measure is a mixture of the objective and acceptance.
Dr. Michael Ryan says each country has to understand its COVID-19 epidemic, understand what phase of the epidemic the country is in and then understand what degree of social distancing it is prepared to put in place, taking into account the social and community acceptance and reaction to those measures.
Social distance would be the cancellation of mass gatherings especially in countries with intense transmission in particular areas.
The W-H-O says it is too early to make a decision on whether to cancel the Summer Olympics in Japan and that Japan is doing all it can to contain the outbreak of coronavirus.
Over 90 thousand cases of coronavirus are now confirmed globally with more than 3 thousand deaths. In Canada there are 30 cases of the virus.
The Saskatoon Airport Authority says it is closely monitoring the situation involving COVID-19 and notes that it John G. Diefenbaker International airport does not have any direct flights to the greatest affected areas.
One of those areas is Iran. A World Health Organization team is now on the ground in Iran with enough supplies for 100-thousand tests that arrived with them as well as a large supply of medical equipment. Dr. Ryan says they feel it is important to avoid creating a sense of external investigation and have spoken with senior officials in Iran about the importance of a joint approach, like there was in China.
Dr. Ryan stresses there has to be engagement between scientists and doctors on both sides to ensure the best possible understanding of what is happening.
He describes Iran’s situation as having a strong work force in health care starting at the community level and working its way up, but their concerns are supplies, specific training in terms of PPE or Personal Protective Equipment, and intensive care management of very severely ill patients.
