COVID-19: What you need to know about COVID-19 on 9 May – World Economic Forum

A new strain of Coronavirus, COVID 19, is spreading around the world, causing deaths and major disruption to the global economy.

Responding to this crisis requires global cooperation among governments, international organizations and the business community, which is at the centre of the World Economic Forums mission as the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation.

The Forum has created the COVID Action Platform, a global platform to convene the business community for collective action, protect peoples livelihoods and facilitate business continuity, and mobilize support for the COVID-19 response. The platform is created with the support of the World Health Organization and is open to all businesses and industry groups, as well as other stakeholders, aiming to integrate and inform joint action.

As an organization, the Forum has a track record of supporting efforts to contain epidemics. In 2017, at our Annual Meeting, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) was launched bringing together experts from government, business, health, academia and civil society to accelerate the development of vaccines. CEPI is currently supporting the race to develop a vaccine against this strand of the coronavirus.

1. How COVID-19 is impacting the globe

2. Smallpox proves a vaccine alone cannot conquer COVID-19: WHO briefingOn the 40th anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, World Health Organization (WHO) officials shared lessons learned from conquering that disease, including the importance of global cooperation.

That same solidarity...is needed now more than ever to defeat COVID-19," said Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a briefing in Geneva Friday.

Officials in South Korea raised concerns recently after recovered patients tested positive for coronavirus, Reuters reported. Research has found, however, that these cases are likely "false positives" caused by non-infectious bits of the virus still in these patients' lungs. According to the findings, those who appear to have relapsed are actually still in the recovery process.

Costa Rica has successfully suppressed cases in part thanks to a strategy that has relied on a swift response from the government and cooperation from the people. The country banned mass gatherings in early March and by mid-March had closed its borders and told most workers and students to operate remotely.

Weve had a very controlled transmission, the countrys health minister, Daniel Salas, told The Tico Times in April. Thats in large part to the actions taken at the appropriate moment, but also due to the very favourable response from a population that understands the challenge were facing.

This is how coronavirus has progressed in Costa Rica.

Image: Tico Times

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Written by

Linda Lacina, Digital Editor, World Economic Forum

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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COVID-19: What you need to know about COVID-19 on 9 May - World Economic Forum