European health authorities are playing down the idea that Italy did anything wrong amid domestic finger-pointing about the countrys coronavirus outbreak.
Italy has the continents worst cluster of COVID-19 cases. As of midday Wednesday, 374 people have been diagnosed, with the death toll up to 12. The government has banned the export of personal protective equipment without prior authorization from the civil protection department.
“It could have happened anywhere,” said Andrea Ammon, chief of the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, whose experts are on the ground in Italy studying the outbreak.
“Our assessment is that we will likely see similar situations in other countries in Europe,” she said during a press conference Wednesday with top officials from the European Commission and World Health Organization.
As commerce in Italys northern regions shuts down, politicians have been sniping at one another over the response. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, for example, accused a hospital in Lombardy of dropping the ball on protocol and suggested earlier this week that the authority of Italian regions to run their own health systems should be revoked.
Only about five percent of coronavirus cases require serious treatment, like ventilation to support breathing — and only 1 or 2 percent of those infected die of the disease.
“We should not indulge in any blame game here,” said Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza at the Wednesday press conference. He stressed the need for regions to coordinate.
That coordination also needs to happen among EU member countries, said European Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides. She called the coronavirus outbreak a “test case” for emergency response globally and for “our cooperation within the EU.”
On Tuesday, national health ministers from countries around Italy coalesced around the need for a common response to the outbreak. According to a set of conclusions viewed by POLITICO, they agreed that closing borders would be “a disproportionate and ineffective measure at this time.”
They also agreed “in general not to cancel a priori major events” but rather on a case-by-case basis. Furthermore, the ministers called for standardized information to be provided to professionals and the public, “including possible common information at the borders.”
As a follow-up to the Tuesday meeting, Kyriakides said on Wednesday that the Commission will draw up “model information for travelers coming back from risk areas or traveling to them.”
The Commission has also boosted its own internal precautions. Earlier this week, a spokesman said that who had traveled to mainland China, Macau and Hong Kong were the only ones being urged to work from home for two weeks. Since then, guidelines have been extended to those whove traveled to the Lombardy region of Italy. Those blocked in the Read More – Source
European health authorities are playing down the idea that Italy did anything wrong amid domestic finger-pointing about the countrys coronavirus outbreak.
Italy has the continents worst cluster of COVID-19 cases. As of midday Wednesday, 374 people have been diagnosed, with the death toll up to 12. The government has banned the export of personal protective equipment without prior authorization from the civil protection department.
“It could have happened anywhere,” said Andrea Ammon, chief of the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, whose experts are on the ground in Italy studying the outbreak.
“Our assessment is that we will likely see similar situations in other countries in Europe,” she said during a press conference Wednesday with top officials from the European Commission and World Health Organization.
As commerce in Italys northern regions shuts down, politicians have been sniping at one another over the response. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, for example, accused a hospital in Lombardy of dropping the ball on protocol and suggested earlier this week that the authority of Italian regions to run their own health systems should be revoked.
Only about five percent of coronavirus cases require serious treatment, like ventilation to support breathing — and only 1 or 2 percent of those infected die of the disease.
“We should not indulge in any blame game here,” said Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza at the Wednesday press conference. He stressed the need for regions to coordinate.
That coordination also needs to happen among EU member countries, said European Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides. She called the coronavirus outbreak a “test case” for emergency response globally and for “our cooperation within the EU.”
On Tuesday, national health ministers from countries around Italy coalesced around the need for a common response to the outbreak. According to a set of conclusions viewed by POLITICO, they agreed that closing borders would be “a disproportionate and ineffective measure at this time.”
They also agreed “in general not to cancel a priori major events” but rather on a case-by-case basis. Furthermore, the ministers called for standardized information to be provided to professionals and the public, “including possible common information at the borders.”
As a follow-up to the Tuesday meeting, Kyriakides said on Wednesday that the Commission will draw up “model information for travelers coming back from risk areas or traveling to them.”
The Commission has also boosted its own internal precautions. Earlier this week, a spokesman said that who had traveled to mainland China, Macau and Hong Kong were the only ones being urged to work from home for two weeks. Since then, guidelines have been extended to those whove traveled to the Lombardy region of Italy. Those blocked in the Read More – Source
