Coronavirus is a deadly virus outbreak from Wuhan China. Human coronaviruses are common throughout the world. Seven different coronaviruses, that scientists know of, can infect people and make them sick.
(1) Put patients to bed rest, provide with supportive care, maintain good hydration and electrolyte balance, internal homeostatis, and closely monitor vital signs and oxygen saturation.
(2) Monitor routine blood and urine test results, C-reactive protein (CRP), biochemical indicators (liver enzyme, myocardial enzyme, renal function, etc.), and coagulation function accordingly. Perform an arterial blood gas analysis when needed, and regularly review chest X-ray images.
(3) According to the changes in oxygen saturation, provide timely effective oxygen therapy, including nasal catheter, oxygen mask, transnasal high-flow oxygen therapy, and noninvasive or invasive mechanical ventilation, etc.
(4) Antiviral therapy: There are currently no antiviral drugs with good efficacy.
(5) Apply antibacterial drug treatment: strengthen bacteriological monitoring, and start antibacterial treatment when there is evidence of secondary bacterial infect
How to choose a medical institution for treatment?
Isolation and treatment should be performed in a hospital with proper conditions for isolation and protection. Critical cases should be admitted to an ICU as soon as possible.
Are there any drugs or vaccines against COVID-19?
At present, there are no specific antiviral treatments against COVID-19. Patients generally receive supportive care to relieve symptoms. Avoid irresponsible or inappropriate antimicrobial treatment, especially in combination with broad-spectrum antimicrobials.
There is currently no vaccine against the new disease. Developing a new vaccine may take a whil
What should I do if I am possibly infected with COVID-19?
Promptly go to the local designated medical institution for evaluation, diagnosis and treatment. When a seeking medical attention for a possible infection of 2019-nCoV, you should inform your doctor about your recent travel and residence history, especially if you’ve been to the epidemic areas recently, and any history of contact with pneumonia patients or suspected 2019-nCoV cases, and animals. It is extra important to note that surgical masks should be worn throughout the visit to protect yourself and others
(1) Bacterial pneumonia. Common symptoms include coughing, coughing up sputum, or exacerbation of the original respiratory symptoms, with purulent or bloody sputum, with or without chest pain. It is generally not considered a contagious disease.
(2) SARS/MERS. Although the novel coronavirus is in the same family as SARS and MERS coronaviruses, a genetic evolution analysis shows that it belongs to a different branch of the same subgroup. It is neither a SARS nor a MERS virus, based on the viral genomic sequences. Due to the similarities between COVID-19-and SARS/MERS-caused pneumonia, it is challenging to distinguish them with clinical manifestations and imaging results. Therefore, a pathogen identification test by rRT-PCR is needed.
(3) Other viral pneumonia. Pneumonia caused by influenza virus, rhinovirus, adenovirus, human metapneumovirus, respiratory syncytial virus and other coronaviruses.
As the 14-hour 'Janata curfew' got underway at 7 am, people kept themselves indoors as part of the social distancing exercise to help stop the spread of the virus. All markets and establishments except those dealing in essential goods and services are closed for the day. The 'Janata curfew' will end at 9 pm.
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In a big boost to domestic manufacturing of bulk drug in the country, the government on Saturday announced a Rs 14,000-crore package that would incentivise production of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and medical devices in the country and reduce dependence on import for critical healthcare needs.
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A 57-year-old man with no foreign-travel history and a 23-year-old woman who returned from Scotland tested positive for Covid-19 within 24 hours in Bengal, taking the total number of confirmed cases in the state to four.
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In a press conference on Saturday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the state is working to set up a network in which people can speak to mental health professionals about the emotional toll of the COVID-19 crisis.
He asked the professional mental health community — including psychiatrists, psychologists and therapists — to volunteer their time to get the network up and running. Sessions would be held over the phone or on over video chat, he explained. He said that if they get enough volunteers, New York state will set up a Mental Health Electronic Help Center.
Mental health is a vital part of public health.
We're asking psychologists and therapists to pitch in and volunteer their services to help with New York's #Coronavirus response.
“We talk about the economic consequences, but we also need to talk about the social consequences,” he said. “But the stress, the anxiety, the emotions that are provoked by this crisis are truly significant, and people are struggling with the emotions as much as they are struggling with the economics.”
“They’re nervous, they’re anxious, they’re isolated. It can bring all sorts of emotions and feelings to the surface,” he continued. “When you’re isolated you don’t have people to talk to.”
On Friday, Cuomo issued an executive order telling New Yorkers to stay home unless for essential travel. Schools, businesses and religious centers — which can often function as emotional support systems — have all closed to help stem the spread of virus. A recent Reuters/Ipso poll found that 48% of Americans feel that the coronavirus is an “imminent threat” to the United State, 20 points more than in a March 2-3 poll.
According to MIT Technology Review, use of mental health apps and tele-therapy has skyrocketed since the coronavirus crisis began. While some have released their contents for free, most charge patrons for speaking with a professional. The New York state network would be free to the public, according to Cuomo.
During the same press conference, Cuomo also announced that there are now at least 10,356 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, in the state. He also said about 15% of those cases have needed hospitalization.
Cuomo also told the public not to listen to rumors about how the government is responding to the crisis. He urged New Yorkers to to coronavirus.health.ny.gov to submit questions to his team, which he said his team will respond to.
“Yeah, we have a problem. Yes we will will deal with it. Yes we will overcome it,” he said. “But let’s find out better selves in doing it. And let New York lead the way.”
"We are closely monitoring orders and inventories. With an adequate stock of active pharma ingredients, finished product formulations and channel availability, we'd be able to sustain the supply of medicines for the coming months. We are not aware of any medicines shortage, to date," the alliance said.
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The peril posed by the twin scourges of pestilence and material ruin brought on by the swift advance of the coronavirus deepened on Friday as the global death toll hit 10,000 and jobless numbers soared.
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Good cheer may feel in short supply as the world reels under a global pandemic, but experts at the United Nations on Friday declared Finland to be the world's happiest nation for the third year running.
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(ATLANTA) — On a chaotic flight home, some passengers who had been stranded for days aboard a cruise ship after being exposed to the coronavirus suffered breathing problems, many coughed and several fainted with no food or medical personnel provided, travelers said Friday
“It was a suicide mission,” said passenger Jenny Harrell, of Fredericksburg, Virginia. “It was a mass triage with absolutely no direction and the crew going, ‘What should we do now?’” Decisions were left up to the passengers, said Harrell, who had some emergency medical training in the past and helped a physician who was also among the passengers.
The jet carrying 359 people, including hundreds of American and Canadian passengers from a Costa Cruises ship flying home from France, landed at Atlanta’s international airport as emergency responders, and health and customs officials deployed to screen them for the coronavirus.
Three people on the flight tested positive for the coronavirus before landing but had no symptoms, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Thirteen others were sick but hadn’t been tested, and one passenger was sent to a local hospital.
Harrell, 51, said she isolated two other passengers who were having breathing problems. One had a chronic lung disease and needed to be hooked to a ventilator, she said. Another passenger had an asthma attack and several others fainted, apparently from low blood sugar levels. Harrell said many travelers were coughing and she helped treat people who had a fever.
“There should have been medical personnel on that flight,” Harrell said.
Costa Luminosa passengers also complained they were given no food other than orange juice and crackers in more than 24 hours — the time it took to disembark in Marseille, France, to fly to Atlanta, and be cleared by officials.
At one point, Harrell said, the flight attendants handed her the cabin microphone. “I basically took over the plane,” she said. “I couldn’t even make this up for a movie.”
In another instance, the co-pilot asked her and others whether they should land in Bermuda, instead of continuing all the way to Atlanta.
“We didn’t have a choice. We had been turned away for the last eight days,” Harrell said.
For many, the flight was a culmination of an already harrowing journey that began on March 5 in Fort Lauderdale. Some passengers said they wanted to cancel the trans-Atlantic cruise, but the company refused to give them a refund, assuring them it was safe to go three days before the U.S. State Department issued a warning for U.S. citizens not to travel on cruise ships.
On March 8, an Italian woman disembarked in Puerto Rico with breathing problems. She and her husband, who also got off the boat, were hospitalized and tested positive for the new coronavirus. Since the new cases came to light, the Costa Luminosa was denied entry to several countries.
The 1,400 passenger ship was finally allowed permission to dock in Marseille, France, under strict quarantine conditions. The local administration for the Marseille region said in a statement that 36 people have tested positive for the new virus.
The screening process for the passengers who got on the flight to the U.S. isn’t clear, but Harrell said many of the passengers were visibly sick when they boarded the jet. “They just wanted us to get home so we could be taken care of here,” she said. “Everybody, basically, on that flight had medical conditions.”
After the plane landed, Harrell called 911 because CDC officials wanted to start screening, but she demanded food first. She was afraid they would have to wait for a long process before they had anything to eat.
The CDC said all passengers were screened and “three passengers who were reportedly tested previously and found to be positive for COVID-19 were separated from other passengers.” Federal officials are working with Georgia authorities to determine a plan for those passengers.
Harrell said officials measured their temperatures, but only certain passengers were tested for the virus. She was cleared to fly back home to Virginia, where she was told to stay home for 14 days.
(WASHINGTON) — The White House says a member of Vice President Mike Pence’s staff has tested positive for coronavirus.
Pence’s spokeswoman Katie Miller said Friday that the staff member, who is not being identified, did not have “close contact” to either the vice president or President Donald Trump.
Miller said contact tracing, or contacting everyone the individual has been in contact with, is being conducted in accordance with guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Miller says Pence’s office was notified Friday evening of the positive test result.
More than 130 million women give birth around the world each year. During pregnancy, changes in the immune system make women generally more susceptible to respiratory infections. And this year, pregnant women also have to worry about COVID-19, a virus that can affect a person’s lungs and airways.
The U.K. government announced on Monday that pregnant women were at anincreased riskof severe illness from coronavirus (COVID-19). Speaking at a press conference, Public Health England chief medical officer Chris Whitty said people in the “high risk” category should stay at home for 12 weeks. (That includes people over 70, people with underlying health conditions and pregnant women.) Whitty described the advice to pregnant women as “a precautionary measure” because “we are early in our understanding of this virus and we want to be sure.”
However, this doesn’t square with guidance issued by other public health officials. During a press briefing on March 16, theWorld Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesussaid, “there is no evidence that pregnant women present with different signs or symptoms or are at higher risk of severe illness.”
According to Dr. Amir Khan, a general practitioner in England’s northern city of Bradford and a senior lecturer at bothLeeds and Bradford University,“anyone who is immunocompromised, such as pregnant women, are at an increased risk of developing things like pneumonia and then going into respiratory distress. That’s the real risk.”
Specific demographic data is limited, making it too early to say for certain whether the coronavirus poses a particular threat to pregnant women. “It seems that pregnant women infected with the virus do not have a more severe illness than the general population. However this is based on limited data” says Cynthia DeTata, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. “We know that theseasonal flu, and priorSARSandMERSinfections were more severe in pregnant women,” she adds.
On Feb. 28, for example, the World Health Organization (WHO) published ananalysisof 147 pregnant women (64 of whom were confirmed to have coronavirus, 82 who were suspected and one who had no symptoms) and found that 8% had a severe condition and 1% were critically ill. Most people (about 80%) recover from the disease without needing special treatment but one out of every six people who gets COVID-19 becomes seriously ill and develops difficulty breathing, according to the WHO.
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Can coronavirus cause complications in pregnancy?
There is currently no evidence that pregnant women infected with coronavirus are at an increased risk of miscarriage or that the virus can pass to a developing fetus while a woman is pregnant,accordingto advice issued by the U.K.’s Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynecology on March 18.
A newborn baby tested positive for coronavirus in London last week, according to reports on March 14, the youngest known case of the cvirus. The mother had also tested positive for the virus, with results coming after the birth. However, it is unclear how the disease was transmitted—in the womb, or after birth.
“All the evidence suggests none of the virus can be found in the amniotic fluid or the placenta. But we do know that other types of coronaviruses can be found in the placenta,” Khan says.
One very small study, published in The Lancet on Feb. 12, looked at nine coronavirus-positive pregnant women in their third trimester in the Wuhan region of China—the original epicenter of the outbreak—and found no evidence that the virus was transferred from mother to fetus.
“To date, the main risks for pregnant women are the same for everyone else,” says Denise Jamieson, the chairwoman of gynecology and obstetrics at the Emory University School of Medicine.“If pregnant women were much more severely affected with all the cases worldwide, I would think that we would be getting some indication of that. And we haven’t. But we do need more information.”
What precautions should pregnant women take against coronavirus?
U.S. experts say that, for now, women should comply with the same recommendations that governments have made for other people.
Khan, however, says measures that apply to high risk groups apply to pregnant women. “They’re not the same as the general public. The U.K. recommends that pregnant women should self-isolate for 12 weeks, they should be working from home and minimizing their contact with people.”
The U.K.’s RCOG says women should not miss their appointments and should be in touch with their designated midwife team regarding the best course of action. Some visits may be deferred after appropriate telephone consultations, especially if there is no concern about fetal movements and general maternal wellbeing.
“We’re still advising people to go to their appointments, stick to their birthing plans and not to suddenly make drastic changes like having home births. Last minute changes to birth plans is often where things go wrong,” says Khan. Pregnant women should not be avoiding their prenatal checkups, agrees DeTata.
“Obstetricians, individual obstetric practices and health systems are making decisions about which prenatal care visits can be safely combined and options for telehealth visits,” says Jamieson. “We don’t have evidence that the risks are greater for pregnant women compared to the general population. But pregnant women, just like everyone else, are at risk of the disease. We need to do all we can to protect pregnant women and their babies,” she adds.
The challenge is that prenatal care is very “hands on,” says DeTata, involving “listening to the heart tones of the baby, determining the position of the baby, ultrasounds of the baby and so on. None of this can be done via a phone call.”
There are things that can be done to make hospital visits safer, though. “We can make sure that waiting rooms aren’t crowded, they’re constantly clean, and well and ill women are separated,” says Jamieson.
What are the risks of coronavirus to newborns?
One encouraging fact is that the virus that causes COVID-19 has not been found in breastmilk, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Khan says “if you are feeding a baby and you have no symptoms, hand hygiene is key. If you do have symptoms then you need to pump the breast milk into a bottle and get someone else to feed the baby,” says Khan. “We don’t recommend stopping breast feeding in total if a woman has symptoms because the baby needs the antibodies in the milk, which will give it the best possible chances against getting the virus,” he adds.
Individual guidance, however, may depend on how ill the mother is with the coronavirus. The RCOGsaysthat in any case, adiscussion about the risks and benefits of breastfeeding should take place between the mother and her family and the maternity team.
So far, children account for thesmallest shareof infections identified. Astudyof 2,143 children with confirmed or suspected cases of the coronavirus in China, published online in the journalPediatricson March 16, found that94.1% of the children were either asymptomatic or had mild or moderate cases, and only 5.9% percent of them had critical or severe cases, much lower than the 18.5% of adult patients in China in the same time period. But of the few children who do develop serious cases, those under the age of 5 are the most at risk while infants under 12 months in most danger, according to the study.
TheCDC advisesa mother who is symptomatic totake all possible precautionsbefore handling their baby, including washing their hands before touching the baby and wearing a face mask while breastfeeding.If a mother chooses to feed her baby with formula or expressed milk, the RCOG recommends that she strictly followssterilization guidelines.
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Jena Starkes is pretty realistic about the challenges she faces when confronting COVID-19: it could get rough. The 45-year-old lives with her 81-year-old mother in Brooklyn, and in recent days, as the outbreak hasworsened, she felt there was not much they could do.
“If I get it and I give it to her, it is unlikely that she would survive,” Starkes says. But, she adds, because she doesn’t have insurance for herself — and can’t afford out-of-pocket hospitalization — her own health is hardly secure either.
“If I get it bad, I would probably just die,” she says. “What if I had to be ventilated? What if I had to pay $300 for a test? I literally could not.”
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Starkes istrying to be careful about social distancing so she doesn’t get her mother sick, but her concerns are real. She owns her own web design business and she can’t afford to pay for an individual insurance plan, and while her mother’s Medicare covers some costs, the co-pays are a strain.“On a normal day, there is no system. There’s no way for me to get to go to a doctor for a reasonable cost,” Starkes says. “We are barely making our rent as it is.”
On March 18, Congress attempted to address some of Starkes’ problems by passing the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. But there are a number of ways the bill fails to protect people like her. It offers limited provisions on paid sick leave and unemployment insurance, but it does not addressthe cost of actually being treatedfor the virus. And while it supposedly made getting tested for the coronavirus free, it probably won’t always work out that way.
“That’s nice,” Starkes says of the new law, “but we’re all still in the same boat.”
Here is what you need to know about getting tested for COVID-19.
How much will getting tested cost me?
It’s supposed to be free. The new law mandates that Medicare, Medicaid, other government plans, and most private plans cover COVID-19 testing — and all testing-related services — entirely. That means no co-pays, no deductibles, no co-insurance charges. Free.
But beware. Our health care system is a mess and the law does not explicitlyprohibit charging you if you go to an out-of-network provider. It also doesn’t address other “surprise billing” problems.
The law requires insurers to cover testing and doctor’s office, urgent care, telehealth or emergency room visits as long as the services “relate to the furnishing or administration” of a COVID-19 test or “to the evaluation of such individual for purposes of determining the need” of a test. That means that if your visit does not result in a COVID-19 test,if you get tested somewhere that is not in your insurance plan’s network, or if you’re treated in anyway besides just getting a test, you could end up with a bill.
“When your health plan has to cover [testing], that just means the health plan has to cover what it would say is a reasonable charge,” explains Karen Pollitz, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. “The difference between what your health plan thinks is reasonable and what the provider bills you, that’s on you.”
The law also only covers testing starting the day it was enacted, March 18. So if you got tested before then, this will not apply to those services.
What if I don’t have insurance?
You should theoretically still be able to get tested for free. The March 18 law offers two solutions. The first is that it gives $1 billion to the National Disaster Medical System to reimburse medical providers for testing and diagnosing uninsured patients. That means that medical providers would be able to submit your bill directly to the federal government and get reimbursed without you having to be involved.
The other solution is that the law boosts funding for Medicaid and allows states to choose to cover uninsured residents’ testing for free through that program — meaning you would be temporarily enrolled in your state’s Medicaid program for the purposes of being tested.
People like Starkes should be able to take advantage of these provisions to get a free COVID-19 test, but there’s still the chance that she could end up with charges the government considers not directly related to the test.
Can I sign up for health insurance now?
Before Congress passed the new law, a number of states started acting to cover COVID-19 testing and other services. Many of these measures apply only to people with health insurance, butMaryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, Rhode Island and Washington have all created “special enrollment periods” that allow people to sign up for insurance mid-year. The Commonwealth Fund, a health care think tank, has a tracker listing each state’s actions to help its residents with the COVID-19 outbreak.
For some portion of the more than 27 million Americans like Starkes, who are uninsured — and the many others who are underinsured — that’s not much of a boon. Starkes says she couldn’t afford to buy health insurance prior to the coronavirus pandemic. Now that the economy is grinding to a halt, she’s in no better position to pony up a large premium every month.
The work for her web design business can largely be done remotely, but as many businesses close amid the pandemic, it may get more difficult to find people to hire her. Starkes’ mother has also stopped earning money from her part-time job with New York City’s Teaching Fellows program since the city shut down its schools due to the virus, and won’t make more unless they figure out a remote learning setup.
“There’s an awful lot of ex-middle class people like me, who have slipped under the radar, who make way too much money to qualify for government assistance, and yet absolutely cannot pay the ‘affordable’ insurance costs every month,” says Starkes. “That sucks. But that’s America. That’s who we are.”
Photographer Lucia Buricelli lives alone in a studio apartment in Milan. On March 9, Italy became the first democratic country since the Second World War to impose a nationwide lockdown, extending measures that had already been in place in northern Italy since a day earlier. Buricelli — like most of her 62 million fellow Italians— has stayed home to stop the spread of the new coronavirus. Italy is the epicenter of the outbreak in Europe with more than 41,000 confirmed cases and over 3,400 deaths so far. On Thursday, its death toll overtook China’s.
Italy’s nationwide quarantine has since become a precedent for other countries, including Spain and France. Italy’s ban, which has only left grocery stores, banks, and pharmacies open, is expected to remain in place until April 3, although it may be extended.
Buricelli, a Venice native, has hardly left her home for over a week. (The lockdown allows exceptions for necessities — more food, medicine, or work — if the person has a certified note.)
“It’s not fun for me, but if you have to do it, you do it,” Buricell says, admitting she is bored all by herself. The 25-year-old goes out once a week to buy groceries. Prior to the lockdown, she went to work every day, went out in the evenings and enjoyed making pictures outside. But she reasons that if the doctors can do what they’re doing, the least she can do is stay home and try to help contain the virus.
“In the beginning, everybody took it a bit lightly,” she says. “That’s why we have so many cases.”
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Milan is the capital of Lombardy, the region in Northern Italy that has been at the heart of Italy’s coronavirus outbreak, with almost 2,000 deaths already. Public spaces are bare and residents have been forced to develop new ways of life. Buricelli’s friends are anxious — some have already left the area to be with family, while others simply stay at home in Milan. “I have a friend that lives 10 minutes from me, and she’s not been out for three weeks,” she says. Every day, she has been calling friends to keep in touch, even though she used to dislike talking on the phone.
Buricelli feels healthy, with no symptoms or known contact with a patient. However, since a case was confirmed in her building on Monday, she has grown more wary. She regularly checks on her parents, who are in their sixties and live in Venice. “Today we talked two times,” she said on Tuesday. “I call them because of course I get worried. Coronavirus hits older people [harder].”
She particularly misses her father. “He keeps sending me humorous material about the virus. We all know the situation, you know? He’s just trying to be optimistic about it.” She plans to return to Venice once the travel ban is lifted.
The photographer is trying to stay positive. Since the lockdown, Buricelli has been working with TIME to document her new daily routines, views from her window, as well as herself, turning to photography for creative inspiration during a difficult time. She plans to continue this series until April 3. And if the ban lasts longer? “I don’t want to consider the possibility.”
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