Coronavirus update: Public health experts push back on misinformation; Cruise ship quarantine ‘chaotic’
Key Takeaways
We’re bringing you the latest news on the coronavirus, all in one place:
The number of confirmed US cases of COVID-19 has increased to 15, according to the WHO. Positive cases have been identified in Arizona, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Texas, Washington state, and Wisconsin. The number of confirmed cases worldwide is now 75,765, with 2,129 deaths.
A group of 346 Americans who were evacuated from Wuhan, China, have been released from quarantine in California. The group includes 180 who had been at Travis Air Force Base and 166 at Marine Corps Station Miramar. One person in the Miramar group was confirmed to have COVID-19 and is receiving care at a local hospital.
The quarantine of the cruise ship The Diamond Princess, which was docked in Yokohama, Japan, has ended, although two patients have died and the number of COVID-19 cases rose by 79 to 621. One day before the quarantine ended, Kentaro Iwata, MD, a Japanese infectious disease specialist, called the process on the cruise ship chaotic. “I would not be surprised if they spread infections,” he said of the passengers leaving the ship. The US has ordered the more than 400 American citizens who were on the ship to not return home for at least two weeks “to protect the health of the American public.”
The Lancet published a letter from 27 prominent public health scientists from nine countries that pushed back against false claims that the COVID-19 outbreak originated in a Wuhan laboratory. “The rapid, open, and transparent sharing of data on this outbreak is now being threatened by rumors and misinformation around its origins,” the scientists wrote. While most of the misinformation is spread via social media, US Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) falsely suggested a link between the lab and the outbreak in an interview on Fox News.
While the COVID-19 outbreak has not met the criteria for a global pandemic, a top CDC official suggested it is time for hospitals to review and update their pandemic plans. Anne Schuchat, MD, recommended that healthcare providers plan for a “surge at a hospital, the ability to provide personal protective equipment for your workforce, the administrative controls and so forth that you might put [in] place in a health care setting.”