Blogs/COVID 19 NYC
From Statistical Genetics Courses
By Nadia Farooqi on March 21, 2020
On February 26, 2020, COVID-19 cases had been identified in about 36 countries and territories, including the United States. Person-to-person transmission has been widely documented ((Burke, 2020). On January 20, state and local health departments in the United States, in collaboration with teams deployed from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), began identifying and monitoring all persons having close contact with confirmed COVID-19 patients (Patel and Jernigan, 2020). The aims of these efforts were to ensure rapid evaluation and care of patients, limit further transmission, and understand the risk factors for transmission.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, an American politician announced Thursday night (Mar-19), there are now 3954 confirmed cases of corona virus and 26 deaths in New York City with some fluctuation in the numbers:
Brooklyn: 1,195 cases, Queens: 1,042, Manhattan: 1,038, Bronx: 496, Staten Island: 179
The city in the afternoon said the number of people hospitalized was 554, with 169 of those patients in the ICU. The total confirmed case in New York City has about doubled in each of the past two days. It was 1,871 on Wednesday evening and 923 on Tuesday night. The numbers of cases are expected to increase exponentially. Mayor Bill de Blasio predicted the city would reach 10,000 cases soon over the coming weeks and months as more tests are conducted. The mayor said Friday evening the city has 5,151 coronavirus cases and 29 deaths associated with the virus.
@NYCMayor says the city is in dire need of:
3 million N95 masks, 50 million surgical masks, 15,000 ventilators, 25 million protective gowns.
There are now more than 250,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus around the world, according to Johns Hopkins University (https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html).
Strategic objectives of WHO for this response
- Limit human-to-human transmission; reducing secondary infections among close contacts and health care workers, preventing transmission amplification events.
- Identify, isolate and care for patients early and providing optimized care for infected patients.
- Identify and reduce transmission from the animal source.
- Address crucial unknowns regarding clinical severity, extent of transmission and infection, treatment options, and accelerate the development of diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines.
- Communicate critical risk and event information to all communities and counter misinformation.
This can be achieved through a combination of public health measures, such as rapid identification, diagnosis and management of the cases, identification and follow up of the contacts, infection prevention and control in health care settings, implementation of health measures for travelers, awareness-raising in the population and risk communication (Organization, 2020).
Recommendations and Advice for the Public
If you are in an area where there are cases of COVID-19 you need to take the risk of infection seriously. It is understandable that you may feel anxious about the outbreak. Get the facts from reliable sources to help you accurately determine your risks so that you can take reasonable precautions. Seek guidance from WHO, your healthcare provider, your national public health authority or your employer for accurate information on COVID-19 and whether COVID-19 is circulating where you live. It is important to be informed of the situation and take appropriate measures to protect yourself and your family. Follow the advice of WHO and guidance issued by national and local health authorities. For most people, COVID-19 infection will cause mild illness however, it can make some people very ill and, in some people, it can be fatal (Organization, 2020).
