No Decision Yet on Summer Olympics and COVID-19

There are now over 82 thousand cases of coronavirus, or COVID-19, and it is now on every continent except Antarctica. There are officially 12 confirmed cases in Canada.

Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Ghebreyesus, says in 90 per cent of cases COVID-19 presents with a fever and in 70 per cent of cases it is a dry cough.

The Director-General says this virus has pandemic potential but he also says the WHO is providing every country with the tools to prepare accordingly. Testing kits have been shipped to 57 countries and personal protective equipment to 85 countries. As well, the W-H-O has trained more than 80-thousand health workers through on-line courses in multiple languages.

Dr. Michael Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, says no decision has been made on whether to cancel the summer olympics in Japan.

Dr.Ryan says there is no zero risk with any mass gathering at this point. He does note that they have dealt with situations before like the Zika virus outbreak during the Minsk Olympics in South America or the SARS outbreak during the Special Olympics and many of those events went ahead with the appropriate risk management. He says they are working closely with the International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee.