‘Way too early’ to talk about ending China outbreak, says WHO doctor
BEIJING, China (AP) — Dr Mike Ryan, the head of emergencies for the World Health Organisation, says “it’s way too early to try to predict the beginning of the end” of the virus outbreak in China.
Ryan was speaking at a news conference Wednesday at WHO headquarters in Geneva.
He says it is reassuring that the number of daily cases appears to be stabilizing, due mainly to China’s huge public health operation, which has placed 60 million people under a lockdown.
But he says officials are not going to “speak about numbers or dates, we need to focus on the task” of containing the virus that has infected over 43,000 people and killed over 1,000.
The number of new cases of the coronavirus in China dropped for a second straight day, health officials said Wednesday in a possible glimmer of hope amid the outbreak that has infected over 45,000 people worldwide and killed more than 1,100.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, meanwhile, promised tax cuts and other aid to industry as the ruling Communist Party tries to limit the mounting damage to the economy. And in Japan, 39 new cases were confirmed on a cruise ship quarantined at Yokohama, bringing the total to 174 on the Diamond Princess.
