Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) situation reports
Situation report - 17 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) 6 February 2020
No new countries reported cases of 2019-nCoV in the past 24 hours.•WHO is working with partners to strengthen global diagnostic capacity for 2019-nCoV detection to improve surveillance and track the spread of disease.WHO and partners have activated a network of specialized referral laboratories with demonstrated expertise in the molecular detection of coronaviruses. These international labs can support national labs to confirm new cases and troubleshoot their molecular assays.•WHO is convening a global research and innovation forum to mobilize international action in response to the new coronavirus,covering a broad spectrum of research areas including epidemiology, clinical care, vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, animal health, social sciences, and other topics. More details can be found here.
WHO and partners have activated a network of specialized referral laboratories with demonstrated expertise in the molecular detection of coronaviruses. These international labs can support national labs to confirm new cases and troubleshoot their molecular assays.Currently,there are 15 laboratories have been identified to provide reference testing support for 2019-nCoV.These laboratories include: 1.Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Thailand2.Erasmus Medical Center, The Netherlands3.Hong Kong University, Hong Kong SAR, China4.Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, Japan5.Institute of Virology, Charité, Robert Koch Institute, Germany6.National Institute for Communicable Diseases, South Africa7.National Institute of Health, Thailand8.National Institute of Virology, India9.National Public Health Laboratory, Singapore 10.Institut Pasteur Dakar, Senegal11.Institut Pasteur, Paris12.Public Health England, UK13.State Research Center for Virology and Biotechnology, VectorInstitute, Russia14.United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention, USA15.Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Australia.
WHO is working to ensure 2019-nCoV test availability, including: a) screening of 2019-nCoV PCR protocols from academic laboratories for validation data,b) evaluation of the potential to use existing commercial coronavirus assays (e.g. SARS-CoV) to detect 2019-nCoV with high sensitivity, and c) working with commercial and non-commercial agencies with capacity to manufacture and distribute newly-developed 2019-nCoV PCR assays.
To increase regional testing capacity, efforts to increase national capacity and provide regional reference laboratory support is ongoing.WHO has made 250,000 tests available to WHO Regional Offices and national laboratories. These tests are being shipped to 159 laboratories across all WHO regions. WHO will also utilize the Shipping Fund Programme established by the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System as a mechanism to send clinical samples from patients meeting the case definition of suspected 2019-nCoV infection to international referral laboratories. National capacity for detection of 2019-nCoV must be strengthened so that diagnostic testing can be performed rapidly without the need for overseas shipping. One way this will be achieved is by working with existing global networks for detection of respiratory pathogens, such as National Influenza Centres.
Epidemic curve of 2019-nCoV cases(n=109)identified outside of China,by date of onset of symptoms and travel history
Epidemic curve of 2019-nCoV cases (n=216) identified outside of China, by date of reporting and travel history
More at link