Category: Covid-19

As the number of Covid-19 cases rises worldwide, parents trying to protect their children from the disease can take solace in one thing: the disease has generally been milder in children.

However, there are many unknowns about coronavirus, and research is ongoing. Here is what we know now.

Yes. They can be infected with and appear to be able to transmit coronavirus, even if they do not have symptoms. That is why it is important for children to practice social distancing and hand-washing, even if they do not appear ill.

It is generally believed to cause milder symptoms in children, but the specific impacts by age are becoming clearer as the outbreak goes on.

Much of what we know today is based on reports out of China, where the outbreak began. There 2.4% of all identified cases were in children under 19 years old. An even smaller number within this group of children had severe symptoms, 2.5%, or what the World Health Organization (WHO) described as a very small proportion. But more research is being done and a clearer picture is still emerging.

That remains unknown. Dr Jay C Butler, deputy director of infectious disease at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said, The phenomenon is very significant, on a live-streamed show hosted by the Journal of the American Medical Association, but that the mechanisms are really unknown.

People aged 60 and older or with existing health conditions remain the most vulnerable to the coronavirus. That includes people with conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease and chronic respiratory conditions, according to the WHO.

Respiratory conditions such as asthma often result in more severe cases of viral diseases such as influenza. But the coronavirus is new, and it remains unknown whether it will more severely affect children with asthma.

Similarly, there is not yet evidence about whether coronavirus could more negatively affect children with diabetes, which is a risk factor for adults. That said, experts at Johns Hopkins University are warning parents to be vigilant.

In many countries that decision has been taken out of the hands of parents, with school and educational establishments being closed by governments and local authorities in order to try and halt the spread of the virus.

If your kids are at home, they will still need regular exercise and will need to be practising social distancing when they are outside.

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Can kids catch coronavirus? What we know about Covid-19 and children - The Guardian

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President Trump has approved major disaster declarations in New York and Washington state, two of the areas hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, Mr. Trump announced Sunday. California's request is still being processed.

The president also said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is working to assist states hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. That includes activating theNational Guardin those three states.

As the White House Coronavirus Task Force gave its update Sunday night, the Senate failed to pass a procedural vote to move forward with an economic stimulus bill that could cost between $1.5 and $2 trillion. The absence of several senators who are self-quarantining due to the coronavirus sidelined several Republicans who were unable to vote.

Senator Rand Paul said Sunday he has tested positive for COVID-19, making him the first known senator to contract the disease. Senators Mike Lee and Mitt Romney went into self-quarantine after close contact with Paul.

The number of coronavirus patients the U.S. has topped 31,000, putting the number of cases behind only China and Italy. The number of deaths topped 400.

Italy marked grim milestones over the weekend with the deadliest days in the country so far. On Friday, 627 people died from coronavirus, a record that was broken Saturday, when an additional 793 deaths were recorded.

Worldwide, the number of coronavirus cases has increased to more than 329,000 and the number of deaths has topped 14,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website for detailed information on coronavirus treatment and prevention.The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Coronavirus updates: National Guard will be activated to help 3 states - CBS News

Today, WHO is launching a messaging service with partners WhatsApp and Facebook to keep people safe from coronavirus.

This easy-to-use messaging service has the potential to reach 2 billion people and enables WHO to get information directly into the hands of the people that need it.

From government leaders to health workers and family and friends, this messaging service will provide the latest news and information on coronavirus including details on symptoms and how people can protect themselves and others. It also provides the latest situation reports and numbers in real time to help government decision-makers protect the health of their populations.

The service can be accessed through a link that opens a conversation on WhatsApp. Users can simply type hi to activate the conversation, prompting a menu of options that can help answer their questions about COVID-19.

The WHO Health Alert was developed in collaboration with Praekelt.Org, using Turn machine learning technology.

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WHO Health Alert brings COVID-19 facts to billions via WhatsApp - World Health Organization

Small businesses across America are already feeling the financial crunch from coronavirus restrictions that have millions of people taking refuge from the virus outbreak by staying at home and avoiding unnecessary shopping trips.

One analyst predicted that the disruption to businesses from coronavirus could lead to 15,000 permanent retail store closures in 2020, with the Economic Policy Institute predicting that the disease outbreak could potentially wipe out three million jobs from the U.S. economy before this summer.

Those concerns are certainly setting in for small business owners across the country, as a recent Goldman Sachs survey of more than 1,500 small business owners found that more than 50% of them said they didn't think they could continue operating their businesses for more than three months amid the current conditions caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

Several U.S. states have already begun mandating that non-essential businesses basically anything beyond supermarkets and pharmacies close their doors to customers. But, even in states where that isn't the case, scores of small businesses have already made the move to close up shop totally or reduce their hours of business dramatically.

"I never could have imagined being closed for days and days," says Barb Skupien, the 51-year-old owner of Embellish, a jewelry boutique in Asheville, North Carolina that she first opened in 2015 after previously running a similar store in Chicago for roughly seven years.

Skupien closed the doors of her store on March 16 after a particularly busy day on Sunday, March 15 left her concerned that people weren't taking the coronavirus threat seriously enough. Her shop typically sees anywhere from 15 to 20 people come through on an average day, but despite Sunday's typically being slower, Skupien says she still had about 25 customers throughout the day that Sunday.

"I felt like it was my civic duty to be a part of the solution and not part of the problem," Skupien tells CNBC Make It about her decision to close the store rather than be seen to be encouraging more people to ignore government officials' social distancing recommendations. (North Carolina has not yet mandated that non-essential businesses close their doors, though the state has ordered restaurants and bars to only offer takeout or delivery services.)

Now, with retailers across the country preparing for closures that could last months, Skupien isn't sure when she'll be able to reopen. "Now, it feels like it's going to be weeks, and I guess it could be months," she says.

With the business's cash flow abruptly cut off, Skupien is left to wonder how long she'll be able to cover her storefront's rent, which is $3,800 per month. She adds that her landlord will allow her to defer that expense for two months, with the potential to re-evaluate her position down the road.

Without that break from her landlord, Skupien says she could have been forced to permanently close up shop after about a month. As it stands, she believes she has enough money saved to "string it along for a couple of months," she says.

Still, Skupien quickly gets choked up when asked about her plans for continuing to pay her store's lone other employee (aside from herself) should money get even tighter.

"I have not had that conversation with her," Skupien says, adding that she's continued paying the employee as the two of them work on building a website that would allow them to sell items from the store online in the hopes of creating a new revenue stream.

"Once we're done doing that, I will have to have that conversation (with her)," she says.

Since closing her doors, Skupien says, she's had a few friends and loyal customers reach out to pay her upfront to buy jewelry from her store that they'll pick up once she reopens.

She's also participating in an Asheville-based website, called Asheville Strong, that aims to support local businesses affected by the coronavirus by creating a directory where consumers can buy gift cards for those businesses that can be used at a later date (once the coronavirus outbreak has subsided), giving business owners a temporary influx of cash without asking customers to physically patronize their stores.

Catherine Campbell, who runs an Asheville-based marketing and public relations firm called Bright Planning, started the Asheville Strong website last weekend in the hopes of helping struggling local businesses create a temporary revenue stream. "We were brainstorming all kinds of ways for them to figuratively keep their doors open if they literally couldn't," Campbell tells CNBC Make It.

As of Thursday, Skupien had only sold two gift cards totaling $125, but she says "it meant the world" to know that those customers were intent on helping her business through a tough time.

Indeed, the financial crunch facing Skupien is familiar to hundreds of her fellow small business owners in Asheville and surrounding areas (Campbell's website already had more than 300 listings for local businesses as of Wednesday), and it's an issue affecting millions of small businesses across the country.

"Cash flow, even in a good economy is often a struggle for small businesses," says Holly Wade, the director of research and policy analysis for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the country's largest small business association. "But, now it has turned into one of the most, if not the most, important obstacle that they face."

With so many businesses closing their doors temporarily or reducing opening hours, Wade is adamant that it's important for consumers to adjust along with their local businesses in order to help them survive.

"To support small businesses during this massive disruption in consumer spending will require all hands on deck," Wade says. Some ways to support local businesses, whether they remain open or not, include buying gift cards or even making a point of ordering carry-out or delivery food from local restaurants, Wade says.

Restaurants, in particular, have faced a massive disruption to their income streams and business models. Many have had to stop allowing sit-down customers, pivoting to offer only takeout or delivery services.

Economists are already forecasting that the U.S. restaurant industry could lose $225 billion in revenue from closures resulting from the coronavirus outbreak, and that the industry could shed up to seven million jobs over the next three months, according to the National Restaurant Association.

In Baltimore, Stephanie Hershkovitz and her brother, Joshua Hershkovitz, run the italian restaurant Hersh's, which closed its doors on March 15. The following day, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan ordered the closure of the state's restaurants except for delivery, carry-out and drive-thru orders.

Before closing, Hersh's business had actually been pretty good despite government officials warning people to avoid large public gatherings. The restaurant, which features two full stories of dining space, plus a bar with a popular cocktail program, was packed the previous week.

"It was like people were having an End of Days celebration, which is actually the reason that we ended up closing because my brother and I were concerned about how packed it was," Hershkovitz tells CNBC Make It.

On Thursday, she says, the restaurant kicked off a takeout service that she hoped would create a sustainable revenue stream. However, Hershkovitz notes that takeout orders typically only accounted for no more than 10% of their restaurant's overall business. Plus, the restaurant will only be offering takeout service four hours a day, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. each evening.

"It's not that much, but we do have a big neighborhood following," she says. "So, we expect that, hopefully, this takeout will take off, so to speak."

Their hope is that carry-out orders of pizza and pasta will generate enough income to help support the restaurant's staff of roughly 20 employees, who have already had to endure a drastic reduction in work hours.

"One of our big motivators in doing this is to keep our employees employed," Hershkovitz says. However, the sibling restaurant owners have also taken steps to obtain government assistance for their employees.

"We've already filed a bulk unemployment claim for them, because you can do that not just for complete temporary layoffs but also for a reduction of hours, which there have certainly been a reduction in hours," Hershkovitz says.

Meanwhile, small business owners are also awaiting further government assistance in the form of a potential emergency financial aid package that has been proposed by the federal government and could include over $300 billion for loans to keep small businesses afloat.

At the same time, small businesses that are affected by the coronavirus can apply for low-interest loans of up to $2 million from the U.S. Small Business Administration, CNBC Make It previously reported. And, the Treasury Department also announced it will defer the deadline for annual tax payments by 90 days.

Skupien tells CNBC Make It that she's considering applying for a loan through the SBA to help keep her business afloat.

"Small business owners are having to navigate a very, very uncertain future right now and it's not a one size fits all impact on small firms," the NFIB's Wade tells CNBC Make It. "It depends on the industry, where they're located, what the degree of the impact is on them."

Max Morey, 69, runs the Crescent Theater, an independent movie theater in Mobile, Alabama, which he decided to close on Thursday, March 12, without any idea when it will be safe to start welcoming moviegoers once again.

Much like Skupien, Morey made his own decision to close his doors, not because business had slowed down (in fact, he had roughly 60 customers for one of his final showings of the movie "Emma" on Thursday), but because he felt remaining open was not in the best interest of public safety and the health of his customers or two employees.

Morey paid his two employees for an extra week of work despite the theater remaining shuttered this week and he tells CNBC Make It he also offered to help them out with rent or money for food if it comes to that.

"I told them that I would be there for them and, we're going to make it through [this]," says Morey, who personally lives off of a combination of Social Security checks and his own savings.

He actually put $28,000 of his own money into the theater to keep it afloat three years ago. "I'll never get it back," he says. "But, hey, life is short. Have fun."

Business has "never been healthy" for the theater, which boasts only a single movie screen with 90 seats that offers three showtimes per day, seven days a week. Morey tries to show a mix of independent films and blockbusters (Paramount Pictures' "A Quiet Place 2" had been set to start showing on Friday).

He typically pulls in between $15,000 and $20,000 for each film that he shows at the theater over the course of a two- to three-week run.

"It's always been fragile [and] on thin ice," Morey tells CNBC Make It, pointing out that the movie theater business has generally struggled in recent years due, in part, to the rise of streaming entertainment. In addition to Morey's own savings, in recent years the theater has relied on Kickstarter campaigns to keep the lights on. One such crowdfunding campaign raised $84,000 in 2012 to keep the Crescent running while another raised $72,000 in 2017.

Still, Morey isn't overly concerned about his prospects of reopening the theater eventually, once the coronavirus threat has subsided. He's already hoping to reopen at some point this summer, though he admits that a movie theater where moviegoers sit together in close confines for hours at a time is "the perfect petri dish" to spread disease. In other words, he doesn't want to rush to reopen.

For now, Morey wants his theater to remain a vocal piece of the local community. He plans to write inspiring messages on the theater's marquee, located in downtown Mobile. "I'm going to put 'We love you, Mobile, stay safe' on my marquee," he says. He wants it to be "a little soundboard for the community, and I'll change it every few days."

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How small business owners are coping with COVID-19 pandemic: 'It was my civic duty to be a part of the solution' - CNBC

As the coronavirus crisis deepens and the advice is to stay at home, people are becoming increasingly creative about how to cope. Here are just some of the ways people are trying to deal with social distancing.

The Houseparty video messaging app, which basically allows you to throw parties with your friends, is becoming hugely popular again.

Launched in 2016 downloads are rocketing. The app allows you to video call up to eight people and do something important, like play Pictionary. Or have a virtual dinner party where everyone does the cooking.

You cant go to your local for the pub quiz, so Edinburgh-based Gooses Quizzes are staging nightly pub quizzes at 7pm. Just form a virtual team, download the form, answer the questions and the winner will be announced the next day. Why not have a drink too?

Organisers have asked teams to be be inventive with names. Theres too much QuaranTinaTurner and Quizteam Aguilera, they say. And obviously dont cheat give Google a break!

The lockdown is allowing us to get closer to celebrities than ever before. The rich and famous too are staying at home and giving us a glimpse in to their world.

Broadway diva Patti Lupone for example has given a tour of her surprising basement, showing off her juke box, one-armed bandit and pinball machine. Ellen DeGeneres complains her table isnt big enough for a 4,000 piece jigsaw. Arnold Schwarzenegger feeds his miniature horses indoors.

Over at Patrick Stewarts house the actor is, wonderfully, reading Shakespeares sonnets. On Twitter he explains: When I was a child in the 1940s, my mother would cut up slices of fruit for me (there wasnt much) and as she put it in front of me she would say: An apple a day keeps the doctor away. How about: A sonnet a day keeps the doctor away? So...here we go: Sonnet 1.

Just 153 to go.

The Chinese-American writer Yiyun Li, winner of the Guardian First Book Award, has started a free virtual book club in which she invites everyone to read and discuss Tolstoys War and Peace together.

It started last week but, given the idea is only to read 12 pages a day, there is still time to catch up. On Monday the club was up to Vol 1, Part 1, xviii-xx and the sixth anglaise is being danced in the Rostovs ballroom.

What is the point of watching a movie if youre not dressed up as a character? The Irish comedian Alison Spittle is hosting covideo parties where everyone watches the same film on Netflix at 9pm. The dress code for Groundhog Day was forever winter.

For Hook it was a more challenging child killing sea captain but make it fashion.

Its not weird but it could well be wonderful. Londons Institute of Contemporary Arts is encouraging people to listen to some of the 900 talks and discussions which were staged at the ICA between 1982 and 1993.

They are available on the British Librarys Sounds website and include Ken Campbell (fondly described in his Guardian obituary as one of the strangest people in Britain) interviewing Derek Jarman; a rare chance to hear the playwright Caryl Phillips in conversation, notably with Graham Swift; and the surprising opportunity to hear Jonathan Aitken and Enoch Powell give their views on secrecy and the state.

Learn to salsa, cha cha cha or waltz. Step by Step dance school in Northampton began live streaming nightly virtual dance classes on Saturday night and they soon proved a hit.

On the first night dance director Andrzej Mialkowski was joined by 376 online viewers. Two hours later, after the video had been uploaded on to Facebook, it had been viewed 6,000 times.

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Weird and wonderful ways to get through the Covid-19 lockdown - The Guardian

During a response to a virus of this nature, it is imperative that the public is confident the government has based its decisions on a representative range of the most up-to-date science advice. In the case of COVID-19, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) has been providing ministers and officials with free and frank advice throughout, based on external scientific evidence and a wide source of essential information.

In fast moving situations, transparency should be at the heart of what the government does.

We have therefore published the statements and the accompanying evidence to demonstrate how our understanding of COVID-19 has continued to evolve as new data emerges, and how SAGEs advice has quickly adapted to new findings that reflect a changing situation.

Government Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance:

This is an incredibly fast-moving, developing situation and as part of our collective efforts to give the clearest and most reliable scientific advice, SAGE has and continues to draw upon a huge range of experts and a huge range of evidence.

The UK is home to experts who are at the forefront of their chosen fields and we are making full use of their expertise to grow our understanding of COVID-19 as we work tirelessly to tackle this disease.

The collective evidence we have published today has played a considerable role in shaping our recommendations on when, how and why the government have made the interventions it has so far.

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) provides ministers and officials with evidence-based scientific advice in emergencies, ensuring government advisers are informed and best-placed to make critical decisions based on a range of credible scientific evidence.

The advice provided by SAGE is one of many essential sources of information that government weighs up before adopting new policies and interventions, and gives maximum assurance that the complexities and implications of any policy have been properly considered.

SAGE relies on external science advice, including advice from expert groups and their papers. In the case of COVID-19, this includes the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG), Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M) in the Department for Health and Social Care, and the Independent Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPI-B).

These groups consider the scientific evidence, and provide their consensus conclusions to SAGE. Both the evidence they have considered and their consensus statements have been included in this current batch of evidence.

Contained within this release are the methods and findings that have informed SAGE advice on the COVID-19 outbreak to date.

Among the papers referenced here, some are pre-prints. These are academic papers that have not yet been through the peer-review process, which can take months, and have been drawn upon by SAGE to ensure that the most current evidence is being reviewed in order to provide rapid advice to policy makers.

Some of the bespoke new modelling that SAGE has drawn upon to formulate its conclusions has not yet been published here. This is to allow scientists time to publish their research through the right academic channels.

As our understanding of the virus grows, we will continue to feed into the essential scientific advice needed by the government to respond to the virus. During this time, we will update these pages with the evidence we are collecting to keep the public informed, while also continuing to provide free and frank advice to policy makers.

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Coronavirus (COVID-19): scientific evidence supporting the UK government response - GOV.UK

ISDH says 58 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Indiana; 7 people have died  WSBT-TV

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ISDH says 58 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Indiana; 7 people have died - WSBT-TV

During two of this weeks White House briefings, President Trump referred specifically to two potential treatments that have been identified by medical researchers and clinicians, and that have undergone various degrees of investigation and testing in the ongoing fight against the global coronavirus pandemic. Its important to note upfront that regardless of what you may have heard, from Trump or any other sources, no drugs or treatments have been proven as effective for either the prevention of contracting COVID-19 or for its treatment.

That said, a number of different clinical studies are currently in progress all over the world, and in the U.S., the National Institutes of Health is looking to fill a 400-volunteer study that will provide clinical results related to use of remdesivir, an antiviral drug developed by Gilead originally as a treatment for Ebola, but its still only in clinical trials even for treatment of that disease. This study could also add other drug candidates as additional test therapies. Meanwhile, studies in China and France have examined the effectiveness of anti-malarial drugs, including chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine including one small-scale study that suggests the positive effects of hydroxycholoroquine in reducing both the duration and symptoms of COVID-19 in combination with an antibiotic called azithromycin.

The important thing to keep in mind when considering these or any other potential treatments for the novel coronavirus, which is still relatively young, is that a lot of what we know about them so far is effectively anecdotal, and based not on the kind of scientifically rigorous controlled clinical studies that are normally used in the years-long development and certification of drugs. Instead, treatments like remdesivir and chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine are being deployed in the field by healthcare practitioners based on their approved use in similar (but crucially not the same) situations, like the Ebola and SARS outbreaks.

Often, theyre being used under whats called compassionate grounds in the U.S. This effectively amounts to employing a drug thats not yet certified for general use in treatment of a patient whose condition is so severe that a doctor is willing to go to desperate lengths to try to alleviate their symptoms. This has the advantage of sidestepping typical testing and approval procedures, and requiring that the results of its use are documented, which contributes to the overall body of clinical knowledge in terms of its effects and interactions with patients and with COVID-19.

Its not a clinical study, however, and that means there are still a lot of unknowns when it comes to its use that just cant be learned or asserted based on scattered, individual instances of compassionate care treatment.

As the Commissioner of FDA and the president mentioned yesterday, were trying to strike a balance between making something with the potential of an effect available to the American people, at the same time that we do it under the auspices of a protocol that would give us information to determine if its truly safe and truly effective, explained National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci during a press conference on Friday. But the information that youre referring to specifically is anecdotal, it was not done in a controlled clinical trial. So you really cant make any definitive statement about it.

During Thursdays White House coronavirus pandemic task force briefing, Trump made false claims that chloroquine was already approved by the FDA as a treatment for COVID-19 under an emergency authorization. FDA Director Dr. Stephen Hahn clarified that this and remdesivir were being considered and studied by the FDA, as was an approach that would use plasma extracted from patients whod recovered from COVID-19, as a potential source of antibodies for others. Still, all of these are still quite far away from clinical deployment in any generally approved way.

Meanwhile, Faucis cautions should be taken for what they are: Warnings that are primarily meant to emphasize that the reason the FDA requires clinical studies, even for drugs already tentatively approved for use in other cases, is because it has patient health and safety in mind. While chloroquine has been used for decades to treat malaria, and chronic rheumatoid arthritis, it can have dangerous side effects, including death, if taken incorrectly. Even when taken correctly, it can cause things like stomach distress, and even permanent damage to a persons vision.

Faucis comments Friday explain the risks of putting too much stock in any potential treatment at this stage, even if they are showing promising results among small or even medium-sized deployments.

Youve got to be careful when you say fairly effective, it was never done in a clinical trial that compared it to anything, he said in answer to a reporters question about chloroquines efficacy in treating SARS. It was given to individuals and felt that maybe it worked [] Whenever you do a clinical trial, you do standard of care, versus standard of care plus the agent youre evaluating. Thats the reason why we showed back in Ebola why particular interventions worked.

A summary survey of various prospective treatments and their current status was published today In Medscape, and this includes the current state of remdesivir and chloroquine investigations, as well as a number of other drugs being studied by researchers. As has been reported here and elsewhere, there are promising signs that they could prove effective in either treatment, or treatment and even preventative use (in the case of remedesivir), but these are, as Dr. Fauci puts it, only the first step that should lead to more sophisticated clinical studies, which themselves will then need competing peer studies to eventually prove out.

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Hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine and other potential COVID-19 treatments explained - TechCrunch

A woman wears a mask as a preventive measure inside a minibus taxi in Johannesburg. Michele Spatari/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

A woman wears a mask as a preventive measure inside a minibus taxi in Johannesburg.

Earlier this year, when the first reports of the coronavirus started to come out of China, global health officials said they were very worried about what would happen if the virus started spreading in Africa, where many health systems are already struggling.

Well, now the coronavirus is spreading in Africa.

So far the number of reported cases remains low. As of Saturday, more than half the nations on the continent 36 of the 54 countries had reported cases. South Africa, with 150 cases, is the only one with more than 100.

Nonetheless, many countries in Africa are responding aggressively to the pandemic.

Schools were ordered closed in the Nigerian capital of Lagos after only eight cases were confirmed nationwide. Last week South Africa banned visitors from high-risk countries, closed down schools and quickly opened drive-through testing centers in Johannesburg.

Regional experts say a widespread pandemic in Africa could cripple the continent's fragile health-care systems and be devastating economically. It also could be difficult to contain while foreign donor nations that traditionally assist the continent in such crises are overwhelmed with their own outbreaks.

The head of the World Health Organization's Africa region, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, said on Thursday that most of the cases have been imported from Europe and so far there is relatively limited community transmission of the virus on the continent.

"Although there may be some undetected infections, we don't think these are very large in number," Moeti said.

Given Africa's close ties to China and the explosive outbreaks happening elsewhere in the world, it's unclear why that is. Researchers are questioning whether Africa is somehow less vulnerable to the virus or if it is still just in an early phase of the epidemic.

Moeti speculated that the low number of cases may be because the Southern Hemisphere is just coming out of summer.

"In southern American countries there's also been spread but it has not been the same as we've seen in the Global North. So we are trying to understand if this could be related to temperature or to weather," she said in a video conference call with reporters. "We have a distinct flu season in the southern part of continent and some Eastern African countries. We may from this infer that we should expect ... perhaps in a couple of months when the winter sets in in the South ... to see an increase in the rate of transmission of this virus."

One question in Africa is whether the number of confirmed cases is so low simply because the virus isn't being detected.

At the beginning of February only two countries in sub-Saharan Africa Senegal and South Africa had the ability to test for the novel coronavirus. WHO has helped 43 more countries set up or augment their national laboratories so that they can also test for this pathogen.

The overall capacity of those labs is low, and the tests will have to be done in capital cities. But getting even a basic level of domestic testing capacity running could be crucial as borders close and international air transport grinds to a halt.

Managing a major outbreak on the continent could be difficult, Moeti said, and two of WHO's recommended interventions social distancing and hand-washing may not always be possible.

"Sometimes families live in houses where you don't have a bedroom for every family member," Moeti said. "Quite a few people in the family have to sit in the same space, sleep in the same space.

"In addition they may be in houses that do not have running water so the possibilities of hand-washing in the ways that it's recommended with soap is a challenge under those circumstances."

Tom Achoki, who's studied health care in Africa extensively, says the medical systems have improved significantly in many countries since the 2014 Ebola outbreak. "But still the health-care systems are very weak."

Achoki, the co-founder of Mass Sciences and a lecturer at the University of Pretoria, says by "very weak" he doesn't mean just a shortage of emergency room beds. "They're dealing with access to things like disinfectant," he says. There's a need to train workers on using masks and gowns to protect themselves when treating COVID-19 patients, he says. Achoki also points out that the data is still collected on paper forms rather than digitally in many African countries.

"So the transmission of data is not as effective," he says. "This is an epidemic which is moving very quickly." He says improving information systems is something that needs to be addressed and could hamper the ability of some countries to respond to this outbreak effectively.

Gyude Moore, who served as part of Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's administration during the Ebola outbreak, says African nations are already innovating to fight COVID-19.

Moore, who's now a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development, says countries saw the devastation of the Ebola crisis and are taking steps to get ready for this virus.

"For example, Nigeria, they've applied the lessons from Ebola and they are doing their best to separate the response to the [coronavirus] pandemic from the provision of regular health care," he says.

"The people [in Nigeria] presenting symptoms of the disease are ushered into a specialized clinic, specialized areas separate from the regular health system," Moore says. "It allows the health system to continue to function and not be overwhelmed quickly. What we saw in West Africa [during Ebola] was how very fast and how easily the health system was overwhelmed as the case load increased."

To prevent that during this pandemic, countries across the continent are trying to get ready for COVID-19. Uganda hasn't yet confirmed a single case but it's already banned weddings and large religious gatherings. Kenya, Moore notes, has shut down schools.

But most African nations can't order nationwide or citywide lockdowns as Italy and China have. Moore says it's just not possible. "In an informal economy," he says. "People literally have to go out every day as a means of being able to feed themselves."

One of the other big concerns in Africa is how the coronavirus may affect places that are also battling other diseases such as malaria, cholera and HIV.

"HIV-positive individuals who are on medications are probably fine," says Karen Hofman, a professor of public health at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. "The people that are most vulnerable ... and there are a lot of them ... are HIV-positive individuals who are not on medications." Roughly a third of the 7.7 million South Africans with HIV are not on treatment.

COVID-19 has been particularly deadly to people with compromised immune systems. Hofman says the expectation is that the disease would be quite bad if it starts spreading among people who are HIV-positive and not on medication.

South Africa also has a large number of people with tuberculosis. It's not known exactly how COVID-19 would play out in TB patients but piling a second respiratory disease on top of TB could be devastating.

Hofman says she hopes the arrival of coronavirus in South Africa will spur people who are HIV-positive to enroll in the government's free treatment program. She also says there might be a silver lining in getting more people to wash their hands, which could stop the spread of other diseases too.

"This is a big natural experiment that's going on right now. We don't really know exactly how it's going to play out," she says. But Hofman says South Africans and people in many low- and middle-income countries are accustomed to adversity.

"So possibly we will handle this a little bit better," she says. "But the fact is that this is going to have a huge economic consequence aside from the health issues. In a country where there is already a 30 to 35 percent unemployment, this is of grave concern to us."

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Coronavirus Arrives In Africa. Here's How Countries Are Trying to Keep It At Bay : Goats and Soda - NPR

Coronavirus cases continue to surge throughout the United States and experts say some portions of the country are beyond containment.

The wide-spread virus has a high person-to-person transmission rate and is beginning to seriously affect younger adults, not just older generations.

According to a reportby the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that tracked the first 2,500 cases in the U.S., nearly 40% of COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized were between the ages of 20 and 54.

Those who are infected and dont require hospitalization are instructed to stay home, but that still leaves families androommates vulnerable.

So, what can one do to keep loved ones safe while recovering at home from COVID-19? And what can caregivers do to stay healthy?

Dr. Raphael Viscidi, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins Medicine, said respiratory viruses are commonly transmitted between people with the closest and prolonged contact.

Reports that are coming out of China suggest that many, if not most, of (coronavirus)transmissions are coming from family units, he said.

The goal is to reduce social contact, the duration of contact and the environmental space shared with a sick person on a day-to-day basis.

That starts in the bedroom.

Its a very small shared environment with a high probability the virus is present, Viscidi said. The bed itself is a surface where a sick person is depositing the coronavirus with just a cough or sneeze.

Harvard Medical School recommends caregivers use aseparate bedroom while the infected person issick. Viscidi said the recommended self-quarantine time is at least 14 days.

In addition to their own bedroom, Harvard is also recommending the sick person have their own designated bathroom so no one else in the house is exposed to contaminated surfaces.

You spend time in the bathroom, Viscidi said. Theyre trying to identify places where someone whos sick is more likely to be spreading the virus.

Bathrooms have surfaces touched on a daily basis, such as faucets, doorknobs, toilets and sink counters. Theyre also relatively small, increasing the risk ofexposure.

When a person is sick with coronavirus, they release the virus into the environment through coughing or just breathing.

The virus may remain infectious in the air for hours. A study published Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine found viable virus could be detected in the air for up to three hours.

Were not by any way saying there is aerosolized transmission of the virus but this work shows the virus stays viable for long periods in certainconditions, so its theoretically possible, study leader Neeltje van Doremalen at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told the Associated Press.

The virus is transmitted through droplets that fallquickly and can exist on surfaces as well, perhaps for as long as three days depending on conditions. Although, Viscidi noted that transmitting the virus through a surface is very low unless an individual is constantly touching the surface for a long time.

In order to minimize that risk, the CDCrecommends having good airflow or ventilationin the form ofair conditioning or a simple open window.

Dr. Joseph Khabbaza, a pulmonary and critical care physician at the Cleveland Clinic, said all standard rules apply when it comes to food preparation.

Washing hands and disinfecting kitchen surfaces are common practices in the kitchen, even if no one is sick in the house.

The frequent cleaning of surfaces is really the key in those settings, he said.

Khabbaza also said its important to maintain the recommended distance of six feet away from a person in all rooms but especially in the kitchen.

There are a number of ways to serve an infected person food, Khabbaza said. It can be left by the door to be retrievedor leftin the kitchen for the sick person to comeout and eat.

Caregivers can enter theroom as long as the patient is wearing a mask. The caregiver alsocouldwear a mask if more are available.

Although there is no specific diet for coronavirus patients, Khabbaza said they may not have an appetite and may only want soup or crackers.

Harvard Medical School advises family members not to share household items such as dishes, drinking glasses, cups or eating utensils with the sick. After use, they should be washed thoroughly.

Keeping the sick person's bedroom and bathroom door closed can provide an extra layer of precaution.

Its an extra physical barrier that no droplets are leaving that space, Khabbaza.

However, he points out its not likely a particle is able to travel far, surviveoutside the bodyand infect a healthy person.

Wiping surfaces, frequenthand-washing and avoiding the face are more crucial to minimize transmission of the virus even in settings that arent contained.

Limiting contact is the name of the game, and in our modern world, its become much easier with the use of technology.

Family members can limit contact by using computers, cellphones and tablets to message and call loved ones while they are sealed safely inside their designated bedrooms.

Khabbaza stresses the importance of comforting sick people in their time of need.

Its almost impossible not to feel that anxiety just with this climate and environment, he said. Theres a big benefit of minimizing that anxiety, making sure that youre relaxed around your loved one is important.

Hesuggested using FaceTime or Skype to communicate with people who are sick instead of just messages and calls.

Thats one way you can have lots of conversation and laugh together and see each other smile while still being at very low risk of transmission, Khabbaza said.

The CDC and Harvard Medical School advise caretakers to place all used disposable gloves, facemasks and other contaminated items in a lined container before disposing of them with other household waste.

While Viscidi said its not necessary to double-bag garbage, Khabbaza said extra bags couldnt hurt and its never a bad idea to use gloves while handling waste.

Tissues shouldnt be harmful after theyve already made it to the bottom of a wastebasket.

"Particles and droplets shouldnt just be aerosolized as a tissue in the wastebasket," he said."Once it'sin there, it won't go anywhere."

However,he said it could behelpful if the sick person tiesup the garbage bag before the caregiver comes in and takes it out. This could minimize anxiety when entering the room.

"Youwon't be able to take care of your lovedone as well if your nerves are taking over," he said.

Although there havent been reports of pets or other animals becoming sick, the CDC recommends restricting contact with them while sick with COVID-19 until more is known about the virus. This includes petting, snuggling, being kissed or lickedand sharing food.

If possible, have another person in the house whos not sick to care for the animals. If thats not possible, make sure the sick person washes their hands before and after interacting with pets and wear a face mask.

Viscidi said limiting pet interaction benefits people in the house more than the pet itself.

If youre having severe symptoms and youre petting them constantly, theres going to be some virus on the dog, he said. And then somebody else comes by and pets the dog.

The dog isnt going to get infected, but it can act like a contaminatedsurface for other people to get sick.

As many public health experts have reiterated, the key to keeping people healthy is hygiene.

The CDC defines cleaning as the removal of germs, dirt and impurities of surfaces, and defines disinfecting as using chemicals to kill germs on surfaces. The agency recommends disinfecting surfaces after cleaning to further lower the risk of spreading infection.

The CDC recommends taking the following precautions when disinfecting the house while a family member is sick with COVID-19:

Be aware that there can be contaminated residue on used tissues, masks and gloves from someone sick with the coronavirus that can be dangerous to others that live in the home. Here are some ways to correctly dispose of the contaminated items.

SOURCE USA TODAY reporting; Stanford University; World Health Organization; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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Sick at home with COVID-19: How to care for your loved ones infected with coronavirus - USA TODAY