good morning to everyone gathered here today the ministry of health wellness and new health investment continues to implement it risk communication strategy as the ministry monitors the development of the new strain of 2019 novel foreign virus the corny virus learned to be zoonotic which means it is transferred from animal to animal is not being transmitted from human to human contact the symptoms mimic that of the few and includes runny nose cough sore throat and fever and in some cases developed into pneumonia of severe acute respiratory infections occurrences will help organization W to the new corner virus which is evidence shows originated from the one city and who by province of central China has presently spread to 13 other countries the number of confirmed cases at the time of this report is about 6,000 with 132 confirmed deaths all the cases that were reported outside of China were imported cases from China meaning that these persons were in the areas affected in China before returning to their countries of the early cases 56 familles the median age being 57 years old that is between 26 to 89 years some of the cases either had their exposure to the Yunnan seafood wholesale market before illness of concern or had contact with patients with fever or respiratory symptoms some of the cases had neither visited the market no had contact with similar patients before the illness and the onset of illness the clinical presentation of the public cases in one city was mainly fever beef a few patients in difficulty in breathing most patients had severe a non-productive cough some hot disney and almost all had radiographic evidence of pneumonia those who died had other morbid conditions that is diabetes high blood pressure cancer Parkinson's liver disease and obviously the prognosis would be worse if you have these comorbid conditions African Swan effect to ascertain the moods of transmission it was noted that the initial four cases through 29 December 2019 were operating dealers of vendors in one and seafood market selling live poultry aquatic products and several kinds of wild animal to the public 15 environmental specimens collected from the market were positive for the 2019 novel coronavirus and that was done through the PCR which is polymerase chain reaction testing and genetic sequencing analysis the polymerase chain reaction testing is the test done to identify such viruses despite extensive searching no animal from the market has thus far tested positive two clusters containing two cases and three cases respectively who identified among confirmed cases and human to human transmission appears to have occurred in the two-person cluster at this point however the mode of transmission remains unclear as regards to how contagious the 20-19 overcurrent viruses the term we use is hard not and it depends that that just tells you how contagious the virus can be so to give you a little idea as to how contagious it is if we were to take the measles number 18 the are not of eighteen then months would be ten HIV and sons would before Ebola would be two so meaning the new vocal virus cut between Ebola to and SARS for so relative to measles which is eighteen and moms which is ten is not the most contagious virus but nonetheless we should take precaution the potential risk of the 2019 novel coronavirus spread in Dominica exists because we are aware that there are Dominica students currently studying in one city as well as in other areas of China these students are likely to visit home during the Carnival season or return to Dominica within the integration period there is also a high presence of Chinese immigrant workers who travel back and forth from Dominica to China however the ministries in contact with international community that is the WTO Pavo kapha CDC etc to keep abreast of the situation based on the table shows risk calculation the risk is at medium to low for the Caribbean region further a national pandemic influenza plan exists and the necessary adjustments will be made as new information emerges also students who are studying in China will be advised to remain in China which is considered to be the safest option at present there are two the 84 students studying in China 15 in one city and three also China on vacation as we speak the Minister of Education has been in touch with Dominica Nationals especially the students in the Converse affected province of 1 on a daily basis today 29th 2020 each student presently one was sent additional funds to assist it's just a precautionary to assist in the process of water and potentials since the outbreak of the core virus everyone have been advised to wear face masks as a result there has been a shortage of fist mass all Nationals are safe and because there is a 14-day incubation period a person can display the symptoms it is not advisable for anyone to leave Wuhan City at the moment it is not advisable that any of our national depart won at this time as this can be a very costly exercise there must be a receiving country the USA France Germany London hollom to put the students through quarantine secondly a special chatter with the National the National departed China and the international travel guidelines for prevention and control and thirdly assuming they are national zoomit test positive that receiving country must have the infrastructure in place to deal with the cure or treatment of the virus over students you want in good spirits and fully understand the risks involved in living they have been extremely vigilant in cases of emergency there are hotline numbers that have been made available to them the Embassy of Granada and Dominica will collaborate and coordinate efforts in getting essential supplies to our nationals all Dominica Nationals in People's Republic of China are safe to date there is no need to panic the government of the People's Republic of China has given every assurance that this pandemic will be brought under control within a few weeks the ministry is discussing the possibility of sending additional mass for distribution especially to the students in Wuhan as phase mass must be changed frequently after news to give a summary of the health plan of action thus far the following has been done firstly number one is the surveillance aspect an initial alert was sent to health care professionals that is the hospital and the district staff on January 10th prior to the human-to-human transmission occurrence so it gives you an idea that the Ministry of Health has been on top of this game for a while now and it started since on the 10th of January since we started monitoring these cases ongoing training to provide updated and standard case definitions to all relevant stakeholders the development and dissemination of reporting tools to health care providers during the preparation phase development of a database using epi info the conduct of active surveillance at the health facilities and various points of entry reactivate event based surveillance and monitor signals for potential imported cases of the novel 2019 coronavirus advice students currently China to remain however if they do travel they will be subjected to quarantine for period of two weeks that would be home quarantine for a period of two weeks the Ministry of Agriculture to combine liaison with international bodies or to the update if regularity start regularity sorry develop and finalize tools for documenting and reporting by Friday general delivers develop electronic database for storage of information by Friday February 7th monitor this situation outside of dominica that is the 2019 novel coronavirus through power whe cover and become the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta around the clock and keep all relevant stakeholders posted conduct active surveillance that the health facilities and at the ports of entry call focal persons periodically that is twice a week and to review pandemic influenza plan further in the coming days so all of this comes under the first aspect which is surveillance the second aspect of a plan the points of entry all district medical officers alerted of the situation secondly ambulance and immigration officers elected through the International Health Regulations steering committee meeting tentatively scheduled for January 30th which will be tomorrow implementation of routine measures such as placement of trained staff at the various ports of entry district personnel along with what Health Officer to visit these areas for identification of possible isolation rooms on January 20th that was done yesterday ensuring appropriate this and stockpile of adequate equipment for assessing and managing ill travelers detected on arrival at all ports of entry safe means of transportation of symptomatic travelers to designated facility a functional public health emergency contingency plan in place at the points of entry a listing of incoming travelers to be provided by immigration from the advanced passenger information system now this is important because you must take note that before anyone were to get all points of entry through technology we actually know where they are coming from so they are coming from China we have that in advance so we can be actually waiting for these people and if any symptoms we take the necessary option and that is where the Immigration Department is on top of the integrated approach in handling such occurrence virus in terms of case management which is part three of our plan retraining of healthcare staff on severe acute respiratory illness case management selected nurses and doctors will be trained sharing of updates and health care personnel through training sessions and communicating review of ICU capacity to facilitate the isolation of persons if need be implementation of the WTO recommendation that is triad that is to recognize and so politicians will see the acute infections at first point of Kota we've healthcare system such as the emergency department or casualty as some of us knew it then we should consider the novel corner virus as a possible etiology of the severe acute respiratory infections under certain conditions the triage patients study emergency treatment based on disease severity and lastly development trials management algorithm for doctors are the accidental emergency department and health districts by Thursday January 30th and disseminated them disseminate them to our health care professionals during the sessions the fourth aspect of our plan that is the sample submission specimen is to be collected from symptomatic patients most times it's in the nasal pharyngeal swab which has to be sent to a lab but power and kapha will be assisting us in getting such samples to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta since in the Caribbean we do not have the capability of that of getting the object s done for this corner virus so arrangements have been made with both coffered as a carbon public health agency and with power to assist in getting samples to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta the fifth aspect of our plan is infection control applications of standard precautions for all patients that is hand hygiene use of personal protective equipment according to risk assessment both m95 and surgical masks can be utilized the normal surgical masks we use different mean waterproof and the inner aspect being absorbent so that the droplets spread is minimized and that can do the job obviously the n95 is a more advanced one but it hasn't been recommended so far it is not necessarily our normal surgical masks can do the job as regards to protecting from droplet spread also we have respiratory hygiene and coughed up or respiratory etiquette since disposal of shops adequate management Ogden and hospital ways sterilization and disinfection of medical and hospital devices also there's implementation of additional precautions according to transmission mechanism we have to institute droplet and contact precautions against suspicious cases Institute contact and droplet aerosol corporate cautions in cases of aerosol generating procedures that is chocol intubation non-invasive ventilation tracheostomy cardiopulmonary resuscitation manual ventilation before intubation and bronchoscopy for suspected cases there's also administrative control that is training and education of health workers overcrowding prevention especially emergency services and there's also environmental and engineering control which is adequate environmental ventilation in areas within health facilities cleanliness of the hospital environment separation of at least one meter distance between patients the sixth but this is aspect of our plan that is risk communication and health promotional interventions the goal of risk communication is to ensure a timely and efficient flow of accurate and consistent information during all phases of an emergency or risk it facilitates communication among local agencies and our community regional and international partners about public health threats and recommended health care measures personally when phase 1.1 that is according to the National pandemic influenza plan the preparation and prevention phase the objectives of that phase is to sensitize inform educate and prepare targeted audiences reference to the risk of the emergency to strengthen the practices of targeted audiences to mitigate the effect of the risk example to prevent the spread of the novel 2019 current virus or further other flu diseases especially for those at risk to enhance communication the media is utilized to improve mechanisms for communication surveillance monitoring and evaluation the first part of this is information dissemination and media relations first release on Friday there was a press release on Friday 24 January for ministry of health wellness and new investments and also from caja which departed public health agency an increase in education to public and hand hygiene use of personal protective equipment and respiratory etiquette all has already been done since the commencement of the flu season a press briefing Ministry of Health that was on January 27th that's two days ago and we are the press we're going to have press releases weekly or bi-weekly as necessary for ministry of health wellness and new health investments that is in collaboration in Peru WH o kafir and is also training of ambulance services customs and our cultural officers which has begun and is ongoing there the training of health care workers that is hospital doctors will take place on Friday January 31st and Hospital disease on February 4th private doctors will also be invited in one of these sessions meeting faith-based organization that will fit based organizations nongovernmental organizations and other key stakeholders hosting of town hall meetings educational sessions to be held at highest public and private locations to include schools both primary secondary school decals senior citizen home and others reestablishment of telephone hotlines that is four four eight two one five one this would be our hotline number four four eight two one five one and that's at the health promotion unit health information unit and primary health care production and dissemination of proof upshifts pamphlets and posters we have a step up of evidence-based surveillance we monitor off Facebook whassa and on the field we also have the production of public service announcements and that will be in English French Creole Spanish and Chinese to be here at all our pots of entries that is Douglas Charles Airport Rosa Ferry Terminal and other business establishments as well live strategic media discussions on on radio television and online utilizing key health and other personnel from surveillance team Ministry of Agriculture Foreign Affairs education and a spa all of these will be documented everything that's been done as regards to the investigations are together the history being taken everything will be documented additionally all sectors to ensure that the emergency plans are in place and well documented and continuously revise accordingly continuous sharing of information as it relates to the 2019 novel coronavirus flight information to be provided by immigration and this is basically the plan of the Ministry of Health I've mentioned the different aspects of the plan and I think we have put a very nice plan into place and I think we should all be safe with regards to the 2019 novel coronavirus the mixture of health has taken every step both here and also considering our students in China and taking into account the short space of time that people can travel from one area to another we have put all the measures in place and all of these are being done with guidelines from WH o pas who cover and the Center for Disease Control you