3月14日早间英文播报：WHO declares COVID-19 a pandemic

A staff member disinfects near a bus terminal at Gwangjin District of Seoul, South Korea, March 12, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]

Some coronavirus deaths misdiagnosed as influenza in US, CDC official says

As the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak a global pandemic, countries around the world were called on to step up their efforts to combat the disease.

Meanwhile, the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that some coronavirus deaths had been misdiagnosed as influenza in the US, suggesting that the virus has probably existed in the United States for some time.

Novel coronavirus pneumonia, which the WHO has named COVID-19, has spread to at least 118 countries and infected more than 125,000 people globally as of Thursday, according to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Over the last two weeks, the number of cases outside China has increased 13-fold and the number of affected countries has tripled, the WHO announced at a news conference in Geneva on Wednesday.

Tedros said that the organization expects to see the number of cases, deaths and affected countries climb even higher in the days and weeks ahead.

"All countries can still change the course of this pandemic. If countries detect, test, treat, isolate, trace and mobilize their people in the response," said the WHO director-general. "We are deeply concerned by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction."

The WHO website defines a pandemic as "the worldwide spread of a new disease". It's the first time the WHO has called an outbreak a pandemic since H1N1 "swine flu" in 2009.

In a US House of Representatives hearing on the COVID-19 outbreak on Wednesday, Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that some COVID-19 deaths have been misdiagnosed as influenza in the US.

Redfield was speaking in response to Representative Harley Rouda's question of whether such a misdiagnosis were possible in the US.

"The standard practice is the first thing you do is test for influenza, so if they had influenza they would be positive," Redfield said, adding that there has been "a surveillance system of deaths from pneumonia, that the CDC has; it's not in every city, every state, every hospital".

Since the outbreak started, some Western politicians and media have labeled COVID-19 as the "China virus" and stigmatize the global fight against COVID-19. In response, Redfield said that it was wrong to refer to the novel coronavirus as a "Chinese coronavirus", slamming the use of the term as racist and xenophobic.

At a news conference on Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that since the outbreak of COVID-19, the Chinese government has taken the most comprehensive, thorough and rigorous prevention and control measures and waged a resolute fight against the epidemic.

"China's fight against the virus is an important part of the global containment," Geng said. "In the next step, China is ready to continue to maintain the domestic prevention and control efforts while at the same time making contributions to the global fight against the virus."

Geng also said that the origin of the virus is a scientific issue that requires professional and scientific evidence. He said the international community should work together instead of blaming each other, which is thoroughly unconstructive.

After downplaying the threat of the virus for days, US President Donald Trump announced Wednesday night in an Oval Office address that he is sharply restricting European passenger travel to the US and moving to ease the pandemic's economic costs.

In the address, Trump seemed to be blaming Europe for the increased novel coronavirus caseload in the US.

"To keep new cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days," Trump said, adding that the new rules will take effect on Friday at midnight.

The US president also said there will be exemptions for US citizens who have undergone screenings and that the travel restrictions do not apply to the United Kingdom.

Because of their quickly climbing COVID-19 case numbers, the US and Europe are coming to be seen as the new epicenter of the pandemic. According to the WHO, Italy had 10,149 confirmed cases as of Wednesday. By Wednesday, there had been more than 1,100 confirmed infections in the US and 32 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

China reported a record low of just 15 new cases on Thursday and three-fourths of its infected patients have recovered.

The NBA became the first major US sports league to suspend play until further notice after a Utah Jazz player tested positive for coronavirus. In Italy, soccer club Juventus said defender Daniele Rugani tested positive. Actor Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson said they had the virus. He had been working in Australia when they felt ill with slight fevers, his statement said.

Officials in Seattle announced that public schools would close for about 53,000 students and large gatherings were banned in San Francisco and in Washington state, the hardest-hit US state, with 29 deaths.

Ai Heping in New York contributed to this story.

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记者：陈卫华、潘梦琪、赵焕新
播报：Andrew Pasek
原文链接：
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202003/13/WS5e6a90f5a31012821727ea84.html