HomeHealthcare NewsCoronavirus is more serious than common flu, says WHO’s Margaret Harris

Coronavirus is more serious than common flu, says WHO’s Margaret Harris

The coronavirus outbreak so far has claimed 3,200 lives, with over 39,700 active cases. Italy and Iran have witnessed a sharp surge in number of active cases and deaths.

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By Shereen Bhan  March 4, 2020, 11:18:04 PM IST (Updated)

Coronavirus is more serious than common flu, says WHO’s Margaret Harris
The coronavirus outbreak so far has claimed 3,200 lives, with over 39,700 active cases. Italy and Iran have witnessed a sharp surge in number of active cases and deaths.


According to Margaret Harris, World Health Organisation (WHO) spokesperson, coronavirus is more serious than the common flu.

Coronavirus fatality rate

Speaking on the fatality rate that has gone up to 3.4 percent from earlier 2 percent, Harris said: “This is a simple statistic which is arrived at by dividing the number of deaths with the number of cases. So, this number varies a lot especially when you have got an outbreak like this that is evolving. We saw big differences for instance in China depending on the province and depending on the stage of the outbreak.”

Coronavirus in India

Speaking on India, Harris said that India must work to improve environmental hygiene.

“It is a good thing and a bad thing. You have got some cases, nobody wants that, but you have identified them. So that is a good thing."

"The important thing now is to get your population aware of what they need to do, things like handwashing, being careful about social distancing if people are not well and really upping efforts to improve environmental hygiene so that all surfaces are as clean as possible and really emphasising to people to not touch mouth, nose and eyes,” she told CNBC-TV18.

On shortages of masks and medicines

She said: “We are working very closely with manufacturers to increase production, increase the availability and also ensure that the masks go to the health systems, to the medical workers, the health workers who need those because they are working very closely with people with infectious disease like coronavirus, but also other infectious diseases.”

“Masks are not needed for people who are healthy. There is a misunderstanding that if you are healthy, you should be wearing a mask. No, it is only needed when somebody is infectious,” she added.





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