Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #46

[nhmemorymaker]

Cruise ship bookings up by 40 PER CENT as travelers prepare to set sail in 2021 | Daily Mail Online

Well as long as you get cruise insurance...I guess it is a good investment, hedging your bets. ha

 

[katydid23]

it just seems that this plan to divert the food/milk should have been in place.. back in Feb. Not a super easy task...but not impossible either. It just feels so personal...when I see, on our local news, all those corn and bean fields here in Florida just mowed right over. When I know how so many people right over in Lousiana have no food....

But who is there to harvest the crops? The farmers usually bring in workers to help them do that work. And that is not possible right now with the pandemic.

 

[musicaljoke]

But who is there to harvest the crops? The farmers usually bring in workers to help them do that work. And that is not possible right now with the pandemic.

Unemployment is about 30% and students are out of highschool and university. Although foreign agricultural workers have experience and training that students are lacking, farmers in Ontario are getting some of the critical, time sensitive work done with the help of local students.

One thing that greatly pained me in the news this week, was Trump's announcement that foreign workers could be paid less this year. That just seems so wrong. Why not give the farmers some support to hire these essential workers at a fair wage?

White House Seeks To Lower Farmworker Pay To Help Agriculture Industry

 

[Simply Southern]

How many people are going to end up dead or spreading the virus after packing up into churches?

I looked for a local article, from Richmond but they ALL failed to mention his reluctance to cancel in person services. The local papers hail him as a hero.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2020/04/13/virginia-pastor-church-dies-coronavirus/

Glenn preached in church about the virus in March, before he became sick, encouraging people not to be afraid. On March 22, five days after Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) had urged people to “avoid non-essential gatherings of more than 10 people,” Glenn told his congregation that “I firmly believe that God is larger than this dreaded virus,” according to a video played April 6 by Richmond station WTVR.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

Much smaller country but you might find the contact tracing operation in Ireland interesting, where all close contacts of confirmed cases are contacted and told to isolate. Public health staff, army cadets and civil servants from departments that are currently less busy have been drafted in to do this work...

Coronavirus: The inside story of Ireland’s contact tracing operation
Public servants are making 2,000 calls a day to monitor and tackle the spread of Covid-19

Dr Greg Martin uses a resonant phrase when describing the contact tracing programme the HSE has mounted in Ireland to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. “We are sort of building a plane while we are trying to fly it,” he says as he tries to explain the speed, and scope, and sheer breadth of the operation that has been put in place.

Ireland had its first case of confirmed Covid-19 on February 29th. And at time of writing, more than 6,000 cases have been confirmed in the country. Every one of those 6,000-plus people’s contacts has been contacted. In the beginning, that involved tracing another 40 people or even more. Now, with social distancing, it has become somewhat easier, an average of three per person.

Last Monday and Tuesday, 2,000 phone calls a day were made from the nine contact tracing centres around the country. By next week, it will be geared up to place 5,000 calls a day.

The team responsible for all of this has been scaled up from a few dozen people to a few hundred. It can become a few thousand if the outbreak continues to escalate at pace.

Martin, a public health specialist, refers to the UK where the contact tracing programme was quickly jettisoned on the basis it would be impossible to accomplish.

“Most countries have not even attempted this. Most countries didn’t think of this as something you could do. Ireland has done something that is, in my opinion, quite remarkable, especially given the timeframe within which it’s being done.”

(...)

So far, there are 200 people working on the programme but in total 1,700 have received training in how to make the calls. From nine centres around the country, mostly on university campuses but also in the Curragh Defence Forces base in Co Kildare and the offices of the Revenue Commissioners, they place 1,000-2,000 calls a day, depending on how many new cases have been identified.

(...)

Killian McGrane is the HSE lead on the programme and oversees the design and implementation of the scheme. One of his first realisations was that the system was never going to be without flaws, but that acting quickly was vital.

“The line of Dr Mike Ryan from the WHO that you don’t let perfection get in the way of good has been very much our mantra.”

(...)

It has resulted in more than 60,000 personal contacts and a complex mapping of the State that identifies clusters, demographic information, and lifestyle and travel patterns.

(...)

The process is broken down into three phone calls. Everyone who is diagnosed is required to supply a mobile number, which is contacted. In nursing homes and hospital settings, the information gathering is done in conjunction with specialist public health staff, or designated contacts, in situ.

Doyle explains what each call entails: “Call one is done by people who have a clinical background. They tell the person the result is positive, ask them about symptoms and give medical advice.” These people are in a position to make medical decisions if the person is symptomatic.

Call two is made about an hour later. It’s from a contact tracer in one of the centres. They go through a long list of questions and get details of all their contacts, and all of those details are entered into the information system. The person is asked to trawl back through all close contacts for the past fortnight, before they became symptomatic. Close contact is defined as closer than two metres for more than five minutes.

Call three is to all the contacts listed by the person who has a diagnosis. The person is not named and the contacts are asked if they have any symptoms. If they do, they are advised to contact their GP. They are all told to self-isolate for 14 days, irrespective of having symptoms or not. There are always medical personnel on hand in the centres to deal with health issues that might arise.

(...)

As time moved on, the number of cases escalated. However, social distancing quickly led to a reduction of contacts, from an average of 20 down to three (in most cases within the same household).

“When we started on March 10th, our mandate was to to deal with 500 new cases a day,” says McGrane, who says the longer term plan was to scale up to 4,000 a day.

There has been some good news. “We haven’t needed anything like that but that’s the scale of the operation.” Some 1,700 people have been trained, about 200-300 of whom are currently deployed.

But long delays, of up to 14 days, in results for Covid-19 testing has made the situation more challenging. “Contact tracing is less effective in that timeframe,” says Martin. “It’s still important as you are still providing contacts with information. [But] the shorter you can make that time, the better.”

Last week, the National Public Health Emergency Team addressed that big delay by allowing contact tracing for presumptive, as opposed to confirmed, cases.

McGrane says it will lead to a big scaling up of numbers, putting them in a position to deal with 1,000 new cases each day. That’s 5,000 calls or more (1,000 from call one, 1,000 from call two, and an average of 3,000 from call three).

(...)

Doyle and Martin have a message for the “unsung heroes” making those thousands of calls. “What they’re doing is saving lives by contributing to a process that is going to reduce the number of people who get sick in Ireland,” says Martin.

“Whatever this outbreak turns out to be, is going to be less than it would have been without the operation . . . The people whose lives they save will never even know that their lives were saved.”

Coronavirus: The inside story of Ireland’s contact tracing operation

thank you soooo much. great information......

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Good morning here from a hopefully sunny and calm day in south jersey.
What a day yesterday was. Hubzy ‘s laptop quit on him 9ish a.m........
Meanwhile it is lashing it down outside and windy as...

Internet out at 10 a..m.......ok...now what the....ok...I’ll take my mid morning nap, no probs.

Woke up at 1pm.....no electric......still windy and raining.

I thought of the people in Mississippi and surrounding area that their lives and or homes. Reminding hubs that we are lucky.

Storms suck when they do damage like that !
Prayers to all affected.

I went to bed before sundown (as usual).....having faith in our electric company. In all my years in southern nj the electric is never out for long. ......but when I got up in by midnight it was still dark in the house. No electric.

An hour later I opened my eyes to see light streaming in under the door. Woot!

I feel ya. I do. I’m blue too. I can’t sleep. I’m waiting to be
Sittin' in the morning sun
I'll be sittin' when the evening comes...

Eta: Be happy today. What other choice do we have?

 

[nhmemorymaker]

I understand why the governors are doing this but think they may be jumping the gun a little bit.
US governors announce multi-state pacts to begin easing coronavirus orders

I think they are actually holding the "jumping the gun" back. They are closer to the real needs of those states. There is so much commuter traffic among those northeastern states. It has to be well coordinated.

 

[katydid23]

Unemployment is about 30% and students are out of highschool and university. Although foreign agricultural workers have experience and training that students are lacking, farmers in Ontario are getting some of the critical, time sensitive work done with the help of local students.

One thing that greatly pained me in the news this week, was Trump's announcement that foreign workers could be paid less this year. That just seems so wrong. Why not give the farmers some support to hire these essential workers at a fair wage?

White House Seeks To Lower Farmworker Pay To Help Agriculture Industry

He asked to lower the wages because our farmers are in dire financial straits. That is why so much food is being destroyed and not even harvested.

The prices have dropped so low they cannot even sell it so they cannot afford to pay anyone to harvest it. With the schools and restaurants closed, there is not a market for all of the dairy products, etc.

It is amazing that your farmers are able to find students to come and do hard farm labor like that.

I'd be surprised if we could get any of our students to do so. I really would.

Dairy farmers forced to dump milk as demand drops amid coronavirus closures
Dairy farmers forced to dump milk as demand drops amid coronavirus closures
“You can't shut down cows. You can't turn them off like a faucet,” one farmer tells NBC News about the sudden drop in demand for dairy products.

Dairy farmers have faced a crash in milk prices amid the coronavirus pandemic in the last month when restaurants, workplaces and schools shuttered across the country. Many dairy operations have even dumped their cows’ milk as the initial splash of at-home consumption has tapered off and the restaurant industry has nearly disappeared.

“You can't shut down cows. You can't turn them off like a faucet,” Zoey Nelson, 27, a sixth-generation dairy farmer in Waupaca, Wisconsin, told NBC News. “Just to see it literally going down the drain — it's devastating.”


The Center for Dairy Excellence called the effect of the coronavirus on the industry “unprecedented in terms of its magnitude, its reach and its complications.” Grocery stores across the country have set purchase limits for certain products — including milk — in an effort to prevent panic shopping. This, combined with the decrease in food service demand where dairy products are usually consumed at restaurants or schools, has had a significant impact.


“We’re seeing a demand decrease of approximately 12 to 15 percent across the entire United States,” Jennifer Huson of the Dairy Farmers of America said on a dairy industry call this week, “and those demand changes are resulting in a lot of uncertainty.

Unlike many other agricultural commodities, milk is perishable and cannot be stored for a later date when the market demand and price rise.

Nelson, along with her sister Sydney Brooks and other family members, produce milk with an operation of 600 cows. They sell all of their milk to a Wisconsin-based cheese company and find themselves among those forced to pour out their milk.

Before the pandemic hit the United States, dairy farmers had already faced drops in prices by roughly 40 percent over the last six years, a dip that has come as a result of a glut of product in the American dairy market, the expansion of corporate farming and an increase in the consumer consumption of milk alternatives, such as soy, almond and oat milk.

“The fear of the unknown has crashed the price by almost one-third of where it was at [in the last month],” said Stephen Maddox, a Riverdale, California, dairyman who operates a farm with 3,000 cows. He also employs 65 workers and said that he would have to temporarily shut down operations if one of the workers contracted the virus.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

Thanks for the post and not shooting the messenger here but before WHO takes a beating, I want to watch the PC for myself and make sure this article is accurately presenting its assertions. I’m very behind on the conferences, I’m still on Apr 3 or 6 conference.

Eta: Because of the above quoted article, I might have to just skip straight to today’s conference, and try to go back later to the others I’ve missed if I can. I don’t want to miss a single Q&A with Dr. Mike and Dr. Maria.

Eta2: No way in hell these doctors are going to support something which is potentially the cause of a pandemic killing thousands of people and infecting 2 million. No way. These people, Doc T and company, are about saving lives and helping advise on containment, mitigation, research, prevention, etc etc. They want to fix the problem not recreate it. That I am sure of.

Something must be taken out of context or wrong with that article and I’m going to get to the bottom of it. Again not shooting the messenger.

I see it’s ABC news. I’ve commented on other threads that they are shoddy Imo and flat out incorrect sometimes. I have examples to prove it in other threads.

Going in for the PC.

I/we greatly appreciate your digging on this.

 

[tresir2012]

ha ha.... What made last night's encounter unique was the context. And secondly, this was, if you like, a distillation...you are on a roll..hope you don't have a headache this morning.

The continued reporting of the USS Roosevelt are so awful. Over 600 have the virus.

And they are keeping them at sea I think I read. I fear for their health on there.

 

[PingTheRouter]

well.. i learned something today. This just seems so strange when it seems like anything can get exported. And you love American cheese????? wow

my friend tried to send me velveeta but customs took it and yes i love american cheese

mac and cheese is my favorite meal ever and i can never get the right cheese!

 

[tresir2012]

He asked to lower the wages because our farmers are in dire financial straits. That is why so much food is being destroyed and not even harvested.

The prices have dropped so low they cannot even sell it so they cannot afford to pay anyone to harvest it. With the schools and restaurants closed, there is not a market for all of the dairy products, etc.

It is amazing that your farmers are able to find students to come and do hard farm labor like that.

I'd be surprised if we could get any of our students to do so. I really would.

Dairy farmers forced to dump milk as demand drops amid coronavirus closures
Dairy farmers forced to dump milk as demand drops amid coronavirus closures
“You can't shut down cows. You can't turn them off like a faucet,” one farmer tells NBC News about the sudden drop in demand for dairy products.

Dairy farmers have faced a crash in milk prices amid the coronavirus pandemic in the last month when restaurants, workplaces and schools shuttered across the country. Many dairy operations have even dumped their cows’ milk as the initial splash of at-home consumption has tapered off and the restaurant industry has nearly disappeared.

“You can't shut down cows. You can't turn them off like a faucet,” Zoey Nelson, 27, a sixth-generation dairy farmer in Waupaca, Wisconsin, told NBC News. “Just to see it literally going down the drain — it's devastating.”


The Center for Dairy Excellence called the effect of the coronavirus on the industry “unprecedented in terms of its magnitude, its reach and its complications.” Grocery stores across the country have set purchase limits for certain products — including milk — in an effort to prevent panic shopping. This, combined with the decrease in food service demand where dairy products are usually consumed at restaurants or schools, has had a significant impact.


“We’re seeing a demand decrease of approximately 12 to 15 percent across the entire United States,” Jennifer Huson of the Dairy Farmers of America said on a dairy industry call this week, “and those demand changes are resulting in a lot of uncertainty.

Unlike many other agricultural commodities, milk is perishable and cannot be stored for a later date when the market demand and price rise.

Nelson, along with her sister Sydney Brooks and other family members, produce milk with an operation of 600 cows. They sell all of their milk to a Wisconsin-based cheese company and find themselves among those forced to pour out their milk.

Before the pandemic hit the United States, dairy farmers had already faced drops in prices by roughly 40 percent over the last six years, a dip that has come as a result of a glut of product in the American dairy market, the expansion of corporate farming and an increase in the consumer consumption of milk alternatives, such as soy, almond and oat milk.

“The fear of the unknown has crashed the price by almost one-third of where it was at [in the last month],” said Stephen Maddox, a Riverdale, California, dairyman who operates a farm with 3,000 cows. He also employs 65 workers and said that he would have to temporarily shut down operations if one of the workers contracted the virus.

Make that milk into American Cheese. Everyone wants it it seems.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

Make that milk into American Cheese. Everyone wants it it seems.

And send some to Australia!

 

[nhmemorymaker]

More people need to support their local politicians by turning their odd phrases into positives.

"When Premier Stephen McNeil scolded his fellow Nova Scotians last week by sternly telling them, “We need to stay the blazes home,” he unleashed an expression that has taken on a life of its own. What may be one of the most Maritime phrases ever uttered by a public official has taken off around Nova Scotia, plastered on coffee mugs, emblazoned on apparel and inspiring songs.

My Home Apparel, a Truro, N.S., company, has sold thousands of “Stay the Blazes Home” T-shirts and has donated all the proceeds – $90,000 in two days – to local food banks, homeless shelters and a Nova Scotia COVID-19 relief fund.
...

The phrase inspired a pharmacist from Pugwash and a songwriter from Port Hawkesbury to write a Celtic song urging people to follow physical-distancing guidelines. Halifax rock band the Stanfields joined in with a kitchen party-themed song with a “Stay the blazes home” chorus, while others have written similar songs set to accordions and acoustic guitars."​

Nova Scotia Premier’s plea to ‘stay the blazes home’ becomes rallying cry in fight against COVID-19

I love Canada.. and love the phrase!

 

[nhmemorymaker]

That doesn't sound good. Having such a severe reaction to cavities suggest he has an infection that has moved beyond the tooth area. He'd need to be on antibiotics before any extraction or work could be done. It sounds like an emergency to me. Call another dentist.

Tooth abscess - Symptoms and causes

I wasn't going to post on this subject (because it is so painful!!), but it popped back up so will just agree. Get another dentist. A tooth that needs to be pulled is just the most excruciating pain--been there done that, and was seen within an hour one time. My husband got sepsis through an infection in the mouth. I know you said he is on antibiotics...but if the infection is strong so must be the antibiotics.

 

[astheworldfallsdown]

Gardaí interview man over money laundering scam and Mary Lou McDonald tests positive: Today's Covid-19 main points

(Ireland)

HEALTH OFFICIALS HAVE confirmed that a further 31 people diagnosed with Covid-19 have died in Ireland.

Officials also confirmed that 527 new cases were reported by Irish labs, while German labs testing the Irish backlog reported a further 465 cases.

There are now 10,647 confirmed cases in Ireland and 365 people have died here.



Meanwhile, gardaí have interviewed an Irish man in Roscommon related to the suspected laundering of €1.5 million in this jurisdiction, connected to an international Covid-19 fraud investigation.

Here are today’s Covid-19 main points:

• Health officials announced a further 31 deaths and 527 new cases in Ireland.
• The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) is set to meet today and will discuss Covid-19 clusters in nursing homes as well as the fact a minority of people tested were incorrectly told they didn’t have the virus.
• Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald confirmed that yesterday she received a positive diagnosis for Covid-19.
• Gardaí have interviewed an Irish man in Roscommon related to the suspected laundering of €1.5 million in this jurisdiction, connected to an international Covid-19 face-mask scam.
• There has been a slight increase in the number of Covid-19 clusters in Ireland – up from 383 on 10 April to 401 on 11 April, according to figures from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre.
• The pandemic will have a “severe” impact on Irish food businesses, according to a new report from Bord Bia.
• Age Action, an advocacy group for older people, has called on Simon Harris to ensure there is a nationally coordinated response to manage the impact of Covid-19 on home care provision.
• ALONE, an organisation which supports older people, is urging members of the public to reach out by phone or through other technology to older people in the community who may be feeling isolated while cocooning .
• HSE CEO Paul Reid has said the backlog of Covid-19 testing has been reduced from 35,000 to 11,000 and will be eradicated by the end of this week.
• Reid also said the availability of gowns for healthcare workers is a “significant issue” and will remain so until a further delivery of personal protective equipment (PPE) arrives from China.
• Health Minister Simon Harris has said a number of factors, including ICU capacity and the reproduction rate of the virus in Ireland, will determine the state of play after the government begins to ease back restrictions.
• Major doubt has been cast on whether or not the 2020 GAA Championships will go ahead.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

Somewhat related news segment

very interesting. i am reminded of how little i know about so many things..

 

[nhmemorymaker]

RED BANK - Restaurant Nicholas, an upscale eatery in town, wants a superior court judge to declare that insurers have to pay for business losses caused by the state-ordered shutdowns in the fight against the novel coronavirus.

The restaurant filed suit in Monmouth County Superior Court against Liberty Mutual Insurance arguing the insurer is obligated to pay for the restaurant's losses caused by Gov. Phil Murphy's Executive Order 107, which restricts the restaurant's business to take-out only.

The lawsuit, which seeks a declaratory judgment against Liberty Mutual, is among what is likely to be a cascade of lawsuits aiming to parcel out who gets saddled with business losses tied to the pandemic. The suit was filed Friday.

Some insurance companies have already begun to send letters to policyholders informing them that their policies exclude losses resulting from a virus or bacteria, which would include coronavirus. See this letter from Traveler's Insurance to its policyholders regarding COVID-19.

A bill introduced in the New Jersey Legislature would require insurance companies to cover business interruptions due to global virus transmission or pandemic, such as COVID-19.

According to the lawsuit, the restaurant claims Liberty Mutual is obligated to compensate Restaurant Nicholas for losses under coverages known as business income, extra expense, and civil authority.

Under these coverages, the lawsuit argues, Liberty Mutual is obligated to pay for losses that occurred during a suspension of operations that were caused by direct physical loss, damage or caused by a civil authority, such as Murphy's order.

The governor's order bars nonessential businesses from operating and restrictions restaurants to takeout or deliver.

James Maggs, the attorney for Restaurant Nicholas, said they haven't filed a claim with Liberty Mutual yet, but are looking to get a judge's ruling requiring insurance companies to pay for business interruption losses caused by COVID-19 social distancing measures.

Coronavirus in NJ: Should insurers be on the hook for Shore businesses' COVID-19 losses?

COVID-19: Business Interruption General Information
Understanding Your Insurance Policy

COVID-19: Business Interruption General Information | Travelers Insurance

@KALI Have you read anything like this in your state?

The floodgates opening.

 

[PommyMommy]

WWE deemed an essential service, returns to live televised shows

[...]

This is being added to the same list that includes services such as grocery stores, hospitals, banks, utility companies and restaurants.

The order that was signed on Thursday states that employees at professional sports and media production with a national audience can continue only if the location is closed to the general public. This essential service was added because it is critical to Florida's economy, officials told CNN.

[...]

One third of NHS staff and other key workers tested in UK have coronavirus

[...]

According to the figures released Monday, 16,888 people who fall into the category of “key workers and their households” have been tested. So far, 5,733 – or 34% -- are confirmed to have the virus.

[...]

China lifts restrictions after African nations complain of discrimination

[...]

The change of policy comes after several African countries complained about the treatment of their citizens, following reports of alleged coronavirus-related discrimination against African nationals in China and particularly in the city of Guangzhou.

African students and expatriates in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou were last week subject to forced coronavirus testing and arbitrary 14-day self-quarantine, regardless of recent travel history, amid heightened fears of imported infections.

Large numbers of African nationals were also left homeless, after being evicted by their landlords and rejected by hotels in the city.

[...]

Italy cautiously eases some lockdown measures

[...]

Among the stores permitted to reopen are book shops, laundries, stationery shops and clothing stores for babies and children. However, some regions have decided to delay lifting restrictions.

The measures will be in place until May 3, according to the government decree.

The government has also expanded the list of permitted production activities to allow some forestry, landscape care and maintenance and hydraulic works to resume. Computer manufacturers and wholesalers of paper and cardboard products can restart production.

[...]

Spain surpasses 18,000 coronavirus deaths, but records Europe’s first fall in active cases

[...]

It is an increase from the 517 reported on Monday, but remains the third-lowest daily rise in the past three weeks. The total number of deaths from coronavirus in Spain stands at 18,056.

However, for the first time since the start of the pandemic, Spain has recorded a fall of 299 active cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the total down to 86,981. The decrease suggests the number of new "recovered" patients and dead are outnumbering the increase in new cases.

[...]

England's coronavirus death toll is significantly higher than previously reported

From CNN's Rob Picheta and Simon Cullen

The number of coronavirus-related deaths in England is significantly higher than the British Government has reported in its daily updates, according to new data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS).

The daily updates from the Department of Health and Social Care only include people who have died with coronavirus in hospitals, and not those who have died in nursing homes or other locations. They are also affected by a lag in reporting times.

[...]

Coronavirus cases near 2 million globally: Live Updates - CNN

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Yesterday I posted a study about the 2019 measles outbreak in NYC as I thought it was somewhat relevant in how infectious illness travels so quickly. Not in my wildest thoughts did I expect to see this article this morning:


Measles outbreaks may occur as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, officials say, because some vaccination programmes are having to be delayed.

Unicef says 117 million children in 37 countries may not get immunised on time.

There have been several large outbreaks in countries across Europe where MMR vaccine uptake has been low.

The UK has already lost its measles-free status, because of rising cases of the potentially deadly infection.

The disease, which causes coughing, rashes and fever, can be prevented by two doses of the mumps, measles and rubella (MMR) vaccine, available free to all young children in the UK.

Here, 95% of five-year-olds have had the first jab - the World Health Organization (WHO) target - but only 87.4% have had the second.

And as measles is highly infectious, even small declines in uptake can have an impact.

The WHO says countries with no active outbreak of measles can temporarily pause their immunisation campaigns.

And 24 countries have already decided to delay because of the coronavirus pandemic: • Bangladesh • Brazil • Bolivia • Cambodia • Chad • Chile • Colombia • Djibouti • the Dominican Republic • the Democratic Republic of Congo • Ethiopia • Honduras • Kazakhstan • Kyrgyzstan • Lebanon • Maldives • Mexico • Nepal • Nigeria • Paraguay • Somalia • South Sudan • Ukraine • Uzbekistan

"If the difficult choice to pause vaccination is made due to the spread of coronavirus, we urge leaders to intensify efforts to track unvaccinated children so that the most vulnerable populations can be provided with measles vaccines as soon as it becomes possible to do so," it said

Spokeswoman Joanna Rea added: "Disruptions to routine vaccine services will increase the risk of children contracting deadly diseases, compound the current pressures on the national health services and risks a second pandemic of infectious diseases."
Measles resurgence fear amid coronavirus