More scientists must probe coronavirus disease clusters, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) in light of new cases in China.
WHO suggests that scientists should study what is triggering the infection and causing the new spread after novel coronavirus cases emerged in China.
“The answers lie in careful, systematic, exhaustive investigation of disease clusters to really look at what is happening in these situations and what is causing the amplification of the disease in the human context,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s emergencies program, during a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland.
“If we get that, we will build up a much better picture of the public health advice we need to give to our communities on what behaviors to avoid, what places to avoid, and what circumstances to avoid,” he said.
Food market
According to authorities in Beijing, there are 79 confirmed cases of Covid-19 since June 11, when the disease began to appear from Xinfadi, the biggest wholesale food market in Asia.
The food complex is filled with warehouses and trading halls. It is as broad as nearly 160 soccer pitches and more than 20 times bigger than the seafood market in Wuhan where the coronavirus outbreak began.
According to WHO's statement on Saturday, the positive cases are currently in isolation and being managed. Authorities are also conducting contact tracing and genetic sequencing of samples to analyze the origin of the cluster and connections between cases.
Ryan emphasized the importance of detecting specific risk factors, behaviors, situations, and contexts, in which transmission took place in clusters to prevent outbreaks.
"Special condition"
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, head of WHO’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, described clusters as a “special condition” in any country. She explained that health officials must discover the source of the cluster and what brought the cases together to effectively manage them.
WHO officials are investigating the origin of new clusters in Beijing and tracing the pattern of the outbreak. The agency's headquarter in Beijing is coordinating with epidemiologists and health experts to collect more data.
Van Kerkhove called on health officials to remain wary as countries grapple with the potential resurgence of Covid-19 cases.
“All countries need to remain at the ready and so it’s very important that countries have the systems in place to be able to quickly identify any suspect cases and test those cases and follow the same pattern of events that need to happen — make sure to test, isolate, trace contacts and quarantine contacts — so that any resurgence can be picked up quickly and be stamped out,” she said.
“All countries need to be prepared to be that epicenter and to prevent the possibility of becoming the next place where cases can resurge,” she added.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that there have been more than 100,000 new coronavirus cases reported worldwide almost every single day for the past two weeks.
Data from Johns Hopkins University showed that there are more than 7.9 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 433,919 deaths.
