世界卫生组织说,尽管冠状病毒,巡航旅行仍然是安全的。
by杰西卡·蒙特瓦哥/
Cruise ship travel remains a “manageable risk” for now, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.
“These are manageable risks and again we need to reflect on the fact that the vast majority of these cases are within China,” said Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, during a press briefing.
“People who say we should steer clear of cruise ships or steer clear of airports or steer clear of certain ethnic groups and steer clear of other things, we have to be really careful here. We need an approach to managing risk that allows us to continue to operate as a society while minimizing the risks.”
Japanese authorities said Tuesday 542 cases of the coronavirus have been identified among the 3,711 passengers and crew on the quarantined Diamond Princess. An additional 14 Americans evacuated from the ship by the U.S. government – days ahead of the end of the ship's quarantine – tested positive for the virus.
Meanwhile, one American who had departed Holland America’s Westerdam for Malaysia on Friday has tested positive for coronavirus. The 83-year-old guest is currently in stable condition. According to Holland America, the rest of the guests tested negative and are all in the process of returning home.
While these stories have been capturing international attention, Ryan said it’s important to keep in mind they are the outlier.
“Outside Hubei, this epidemic is affecting a very tiny, tiny, tiny proportion of people, so if we're going to disrupt every cruise ship in the world on the off-chance that there might be some potential contact with some potential pathogen, then where do we stop?” he said.
WHO全球传染性危害准备主管Sylvie Briand博士说,预防感染和控制措施在船舶环境中很难实施,因为许多因素很难控制。
布莱恩德博士说,谁与各种选区和日本当局以及那些巡航船的首席医疗官紧密合作,以了解如何采取保护人民的最佳措施。
WHO is also providing advice to countries on how to do screening, testing, contact tracing and treatment, and we have put out a call for US$675 million to support countries to prepare.
It also appears that COVID-19 is not as deadly as other coronaviruses, including SARS and MERS, according to WHO. More than 80% of patients have a mild form of the disease and will recover.
“We need to make sure that we focus on our public health objective, which is to contain the virus, not to contain the people,” Dr. Briand said.