CDC Business Sector Call for COVID-19 – February 21, 2020
Thank. You for joining us today for. This briefing, to update you on CDC's kovat, 19. Response. We. Are joined by dr. Nancy. Messing a director. Of CDC's, National, Center for immunization and, respiratory diseases. Who. Will give opening remarks before taking, questions I will, turn it over to you dr., messenger thank. You to all of CDC's, partners, for joining us today I want. To start by explaining a change in how we will be reporting, our confirmed cases discovered, 19 beginning today and going, forward. Specifically. We are breaking our case counts into two separate, tables one. Only tracks people who were repatriated, by, the State Department and the second, tracks all other cases picked up through the u.s. Public Health Network, Cindy, she will continue to update these numbers every Monday Wednesday and Friday we're. Keeping track of cases, resulting, from repatriation. Efforts separately, because. We don't believe those numbers accurately. Represent, the picture of what's happening in the community for the United States at this time so. As of this morning. When. You break things up this way. We. Have 13, US confirmed, cases and, 21. Infected, people who were repatriated the. 21, number includes. 18, passengers, from the Diamond Princess and three from Lulu on repatriation. Flights I want. To update you on the status of the repatriation effort. As of. Yesterday, February, 20th nearly. All of those who, were returned from Wuhan China the. Estate Department chartered flights have, completed, their 14-day, quarantine, at for, Department, of Defense installations, across, the u.s. we. Are truly thankful to those released from quarantine for, their cooperation and, patience, and wish, them well as they returned home as, well. I'd like to thank the men and women on all of the DoD bases and their families. Also. Would like to thank the Travis Air Force Base and joint base san antonio, lackland, that, have continued, to open their doors to the recently, returned passengers, from, the Diamond Princess cruise, ships. Terms. Of the diamond princess, earlier this week. 329. US citizens. Turn to the United States aboard. To a State Department chartered. Flight so. Far 18, have tested positive at, CDC. There. Are an additional 10. Travelers. Who, have deposited, in Japan. Multiple. OB patients, are receiving, care, at. Hospitals. Around the bases because. The passengers on the diamond princess were in closed setting, where, they had a significant, risk of spread of koban 19, they. Are considered, at high risk for infection and, we, do expect to see additional cases, among the passengers also. Since many, of these passengers, are over the age of 60, were prepared for other medical issues to arise a little, para hospitalization. We're. Going through everything we can to make their quarantine as easy as possible while. Monitoring, them to see if they develop illness, our. Goal for those people who have been repatriated, is, to be sure that each person, is, properly cared for and that those who need medical care receive it to. Ensure this is working closely with local hospitals, as well, as other facilities, around the country who are prepared to provide this care. Now. Despite our increased cases in China and around the world we, believe our aggressive travel, precautions, are working as I.
Said The, number of cases detected, through regular. US surveillance system has as of, this morning increased, by 1 to 13, the. Most recent, patient, was announced, last night by California. The. Fact that we have been able to keep this number low is good news especially, given what we're seeing among some, countries in Asia that, are beginning to experience community, stress, this. Is one cases are detected, in the community but. It's not known what the source of the infection was. Being. Reported from Singapore, South Korea Taiwan. Thailand. And Vietnam as, well, as Hong Kong in Japan the. Last two countries, were issued level 1 travel notices for earlier this week working. Post, coordination with the State Department, to, keep travelers, informed, with, the up-to-the-minute. Guidance, including. Cruise, ship travel, and I would just let, you know that as of late yesterday the State Department did post some, new guidance, about. Cruise. Ship travel, for a mare and that. Guidance. Is also posted, now on CSU's tribal website, we. Never expected, that we would catch every single traveler, with novel coronavirus returning. From China given. The nature of this virus and how it's spreading that would just be impossible. But. We're not seeing communities, for it here in the United States it is possible, though that it, will happen in some, point in the future our goal. Continues, to be slowing the introduction, of the virus into the US this. Buys us more time to prepare our communities for more, cases and possibly. Community, spread, the. New virus represents, a tremendous public health threat we, don't yet have a vaccine for, this novel virus nor, do we have a medication. To treat it specifically. We. Are now taking them will continue to take unprecedented. Aggressive action to reduce the impact this virus will have on, communities. In the United States we. Are working with state, local and territorial health, departments to ready our public health workforce to, respond to local cases and, the possibility, this outbreak could become endemic, we're. Working closely with healthcare systems, across, the country to. Reinforce infection, control principles and plan for surges, of people seeking care and. Requiring. Care you're, collaborating with supply chain partners to understand what medical supplies are needed and available, this. Will help CDC, understand, where when, we may need to take more aggressive measures to. Ensure that health care workers on the frontlines have access, to the supplies they need we're. Working with businesses, hospitals, pharmacies, clinicians. Manufacturers. And distributors to, communicate. About these measures and, what they can do to get ready I want. To direct everyone, to. Information. On. CDC's, website that. Provides guidance around community, mitigation. The. Guidance we're pointing, to right now is an MMWR, on community, mitigation guidelines. To, prevent pandemic influenza in, the United States 2017. We're. Reviewing all, of our, pandemic, preparedness materials, and updating, them to, reflect. Novel. Coronavirus. These, materials, will serve as a blueprint, for the community, interventions, that we'll use here in the United States if. You're watching the news you'll be hearing about tools shutting down and, businesses, closing in countries in Asia to, reduce the potential, spread of the virus they. May come over to implement such measures in the US by. Next week we expect to be posting, a new webpage focused. On what the CDC is already doing to, mitigate transmission. In communities, we, recognize, the uncertainty, of the current situation as always CDC public health experts, strive to make the best recommendations based. On the most up-to-date data our, guidance will change as we learn more about this virus when, that happens we will share it to you I'd be happy to take some questions. Thank, You dr. Besser, we're. Taking questions now from. Questions. And immediately, our, first. Question, what. Is known about pregnant. Females, and koban 19, effect, on the mother and the child, so. The concern, here is whether. Or not there is any, uterine, infections, that, is caused by transmission, from. Women, to unborn babies there, is one, recent.
Published, Article, in The Lancet but in that article there's, no evidence. Of inner uterine infections. Now. Pregnant women experience immunological, and, physiological. Changes, that might, make them more susceptible to respiratory viral. Infections, in, general, pregnant women are also at risk for the severe, disease morbidity, and mortality but. Right now we have no evidence that the, risk that the virus, is spreading among. Persons in the United States in the community, and the risk to the general public is low one, for pregnant women should as always, engage, in usual, preventive actions to avoid infections, like, washing their hands covering, it off and avoiding people who are sick. The. Next question is. There any timeline, as, of yet for, a peak in disease, spread. That's. A really important, question right. Now. We, don't have a clear answer for. How they out long the outbreak will last in other countries or the US. Depended on many things we, are obviously looking closely, at the extent road of the outbreak, throughout, China and especially in, Wuhan we're, looking at the impact of social distancing, and travel restrictions the. Extent to which sustained, transmission, in the current in other countries, but, there are uncertainties, about, this virus we have to remember that this, virus was only, first discovered, in the beginning of January and still we are in the early days of learning, now, among in the United States there are a number of mathematical modelers. That are all working together and they have for many years around. Infectious, disease modeling, this, group has been convened, with, CDC, for, work that we've done in the past and Linda, and we're heavily leaning on them now look. At the same data that we're looking at them looking at it differently to. Try to make predictions based on that modeling, at the hell this, is going to roll out in the US I think it's really not. Clear, yet that you can be concrete, all, we should be saying now is that we do expect additional cases, in the United States and, that the window of time that we have bought my border. Measures that slowed the spread down we, need to use that time well to prepare better. The. Next question, when. Do we expect the travel, ban to be, lifted, I am, hearing that Delta, is planning, to start, flights in March. Yeah. At this point, CDC, is continually. Assessing, the situation and. The. Travel notices are as you know a level three travel advisory to China level. One. Watch. Travel, advisory for Hong Kong and Japan that. Is previs the Hong Kong and other countries should practice usual precautions we. Are everyday looking, at this global data on, where, the disease is spreading to make sure that we are as up-to-date as possible and, our travel notices, and working, closely with the State Department, to coincide with them I understand. The Delta, has, made. Some projections, but at this point it is really premature, for, CDC, to, make any kind of predictions, as to when the travel, ban will be lifted lifted. What we need to focus on now is. Continuing. To try them slow. Down the spread of this disease into, United State. The. Next question, a little, bit long request. Dr. Mesonet, comments, on recent. Article, in journal of, hospital, infection, stating. That human coronaviruses, such. As severe acute respiratory syndrome, SARS. Coronavirus. Middle. East respiratory syndrome MERS. Coronavirus, or, endemic. Human coronaviruses. Can. Persist on inanimate services, like metal, glass, or plastic for, up to nine days but. Can be efficiently, inactivated, by surface disinfection, procedures, with, 62, to 71, percent ethanol 0.5. Percent hydrogen peroxide or, 0.1. Percent sodium hypochloride. Within one minute other. Biocidal. Agents such as point zero five to 0.2%. Benzalkonium. Chloride or. Point zero two percent. Chlorhexidine. By. Group innate are less effective, this. Hard surface survivability. Information. Is quite different from what most medical, advisors have been seen that. Virus survives for only a matter of hours, off host. So. The article. This is referring to provide. The review of twenty two separate, studies that. Looked at survivability. Of SARS MERS, or. Endemic. Human coronaviruses on.
A Variety of surfaces there. Are 22 studies and, yet each of those studies only looks in a few different data points not. Broadly, across for example all the strains or all the possibilities. So. What, I would say based on that is even in that data, the. Doesn't. Describe. Long on paper, and so one question related, to this data is a question. Of whether, packages. Coming from China are at risk and we continue, to believe that to low risk a separate. Question, is, does. The survivability, on services, tell, us anything, about transmission. Of the virus what. I would say about that is on, what, the what, those experiments, look at it is truly, whether it is existing. On surfaces, or not what, it doesn't tell you is whether the virus that's on those surfaces, risk to humans in, the environment, we, obviously want, to know that question force our zippers but, we specifically, want to know it for, this novel coronavirus and. There are studies ongoing to, look at the survivability, and, the same kind of experiments, that are talked about here for the new coronavirus. But, equally, we are looking everyday at the global data to, try to determine, it to tell us anything about transition. Patterns at, this point to what we know about this novel coronavirus but. Also what you know about birds SARS, and then, dentistry, Mezzaluna virus the data still says that the, majority of transmission. Is occurring through respiratory transmission. But, as more data available, is available clearly. We'll will, be updating you on that. Next. Question, we. Have had employees, asking, if it is safe to travel, within the United States via air travel, with, the corona virus status, while. The corona virus is not here in the US and large proportions, yet, is it safe to air travel what, precautions should an air traveler, take right now you. Think for this question I think it's an important, one right, now we think that, there is no reason, for people to change their travel plans unless. They. Are traveling, to China. Which. Again we have a level three travel notice or. To. Hong kong in japan, where they should be aware and looking at practice. And usual precautions and, as, I said there. Are new. Recommendations. From the State Department, weird by CDC, about. Travel. On cruise, ships but, for air travel, at this point we don't recommend anybody else change. Their plans in. Terms of precautionary, measures the things that we would recommend are the things that we always ask as best, practice, for people to do especially, when they're traveling you, should avoid close contact with, people who are sick you. Should avoid touching your eyes nose and, mouth with unwashed, hands and, you should wash your hands, frequently, those. Are the kind of things that you should always be doing to, prevent the risk of getting infectious, diseases while traveling. Next. Question, it. Would be interesting, to understand. The general audience too the private, sector around the following, scenarios, if. There is a suspected, or a confirmed, case in the. Office on the. Share floor of a corporate office within. The building, of a corporate office considering. Community, utilities, elevators. Thoroughfares. And HVAC. Within. A staff members, residential, building assuming, they live in an apartment, yeah. Thanks. So it's not by saying that sir right now in the United States has no evidence, of community, transmission, but in this window, of time.
That We have by. Following the spread of the virus this. Is the time we're really asking all of our partners including, private, sector business partners to look at their own policies. And guidances. For. Infectious. Diseases so, that if we do have community, spread in the United States they're ready you, don't want to be trying to figure out these specific. Issues when, your Frank case occurs, we, want to know ahead of time in what you would be doing so, so. Far for. This virus, it's. Thought to spread mainly person, a person as I said from respiratory, route with. People who are in close contact be, arrested her droplets, when an infected person coughs or sneezes so. Surfaces. Are not ought to be the main mode of transmission. But. If you have a patient who is ill we would suggest, that you actively, encourage, sick employees, to stay at home and specifically, look at your sick leave policies, to, make sure that they're flexible. And consistent, or public health guidance you. Want separate, you want to be able to separate sick employees, that is those would call for shortness of breath and. Emphasizing. The importance, of respiratory. Etiquette, and. Hand hygiene for, all employees, and of course you should be performing, routine environmental. Cleaning as, you heard from the previous, question. We, know a little, bit about what. Kind of cleaning, is effective, on surfaces, for viruses, like this, and, those are basic, routine, cleaning of touch surfaces. Those. Are the kind of policies, and procedures, of we would really suggest, all businesses. Pull out and make, sure up-to-date. In, preparation. For the, potential, flow cases more problems in United States, thank. You next, question to, community-acquired. Bacterial. Co-infections. Eg. Secondary, bacterial, infections, contribute. To morbidity, /, mortality. Of koban 19 patients, I think. The premise for this question is that we know from influenza, that, bacterial. Crowing, infections, of patients with influenza can. Actually do really serious, and. More. Serious in. Cost a lot of morbidity and mortality associated. With influenza, and. So of course the question is are we seeing the same thing with Koba 19 in, the United States right now we. Haven't seen any such co-infection. I think, it would be a mistake to talk more globally, data, that we haven't seen yet I think, it is certainly a possibility, but, there's no direct evidence yet, if this is a major risk record. Next. Question, do. Hospital-acquired. Bacterial. Infections, contribute, to morbidity, mortality of. Kovach 19 patients. Yeah. So. I don't know, that again is back to the previous question I don't know that there's any specific. Substantive. Data about. Bacterial. Co-infections. Either. Hassle required or non hospital-acquired, associated. With coded there, have been some unpublished, reports, of hospital-acquired. Bacterial. Infections. In. Critically. Ill coded, 19 patients but. That is still. Not. Not. Validated. Literature I think these are important, hypotheses, and in the United States very. Important, for us to maintain impeccable, infection, control on any us patients, and certainly, protect. Prevention. Of hospital-acquired. Infections. Is, a priority. For our day-to-day care and certainly would be a priority for Cole, good 19 patients. Next. Question, how, has the criteria. For counting, case has changed, in China it changed. Last week. Saw the increase in the daily, increase, and, now it has changed back again to the prior way of counting the cases.
Yeah. There. Have been several changes in the way that China has reported, their cases specifically. There. Was a change, where they included, clinical. Confirmation. Without. Laboratory. Confirmation and, that that met the criteria for a case later. This week that. Criteria, seems to go back it, does make it a little difficult to look at this trajectory of cases, in China and it's so you see we're carefully, evaluating, that data to make sure that we understand, of cases are rising. At the same rate that they had been previously. Next. Question my. Colleague, heard that CDC was holding a lot of country cars is. There different, locally. Relevant messages. In, these calls yeah. I'm actually not sure I understand this question but we hope regular. Crawls with the variety of partners, inside. The United States and outside the United States Alfred. The United States were holding calls with multiple, countries, and with multiple of. The CDC, staff that are embedded in countries, as. You know CDC. Staff has, will have worked for many years in. A variety of countries around the globe on, a variety of issues including, global, health security preparedness. For those countries for exactly. Those kind of events and the kind of situational, awareness and, preparedness information, that we're providing to, you is, the same discussion, that were happening with our CDC. Staff and countries as, well as with the ministries, of health and World Health Organization, entities, and country as around. The world and globally, everyone. Tries to institute measures to enhance. Surveillance. Control. This to be then prepare, for potential additional cases. Next. Question, should companies. Communicate. About the virus and its spread what. Do you recommend organizations. Focus, on should. Companies, be reviewing, their sick leave policies. So. As I said before it's, really important, it's in a little time that we have given ourselves that, we spend the time well and I would definitely urghhh company to. Always. Communicate with their employees, and to, look at the city as his website well we have specific, guidance for the private sector and use, this opportunity to make sure that their company. Guidance is up today. Next. Questions have. You suspended. Business travel, - from. The. Affected, region some. Companies, are required requiring. Employees, to work from home for a period is, this advisable. As. I said before we. Have, specific. CDC guidance on travel restrictions, and those, are up on our website and they haven't changed and I, would definitely refer you to the CDC I would refer you to the CDC website where. We are very thorough in assessing, the risk and also the State Department, website where they similarly. Have, guidance on travel, and where. We think where. We think Americans. Including business people should.
What, Considerations, they should give to the travel. Thank. You doctor Messier and thank you to all of our partners for calling in today please. Check CDC's. 2019. Cobin 19, website. For, the latest updates, on CDC's response efforts. If, you have further questions, please. Email. Yosi, event. 337. At cdc.gov. Thank. You.
2020-02-29 09:09
