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Situation
As of 23 January 2020, a total of 581 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) have been reported from China, Japan, Republic of Korea, Thailand, and the United States of America. A total of seventeen deaths have been reported. The full clinical spectrum of illness is yet to be clarified. Please find the latest situation report here: https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200123-sitrep-3-2019-ncov.pdf
Geographical distribution of the 2019-nCoV as of 22 January 2020
EMT Needs
Given the current situation, the capacity to prepare for and respond to this event varies substantially in the Region. There is no request for assistance to date, the sole purpose of this notification is to identify self-sufficient teams that are available to support regional preparedness and if eventually required, to strengthen treatment and isolation capacities in selected countries within the Asia Pacific Region. These teams must have the capacity to either augment or support existing infectious disease treatment areas of health facilities or support plans for expansion through tented facilities if required. In addition, teams should be able to support the triage area as well as infection prevention and control measures throughout the hospital they support, as well as the creation and safe operation of treatment units.
Technical guidance documents including clinical management and infection control have been updated by WHO and partners to timely help the Member States in prevention and response measures and are available on the WHO website https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus
Key Requests
At this stage, we are only seeking expressions of interest for
- Teams to support hospitals and health centers in triage, case detection, temporary isolation and IPC measures, as well as transfer of suspect cases.
- EMTs may also be requested to provide small teams, integrated into existing hospitals (and health centers as required) to provide support for triage, case detection, temporary isolation and control measures as well as support to IPC across hospitals.
- WHO will provide technical guides and tools, training and possibly some aspects of logistics including PPE.
- Teams are required to be self-sufficient and ideally have previous experience of infectious disease response operations, consisting of
- At least 1-2 doctors with IPC and infectious disease/emergency care experience
- At least 3-4 nurses with strong IPC training and the ability to mentor fellow nursing staff
- At least 2 logisticians to directly support hospital facilities and train local staff on water, waste management and other IPC interventions.
All teams on standby that meet the criteria should email their expressions of interest to Flavio Salio (saliof@who.int) and copy emteams@who.int. Please be reminded that teams are expected to be able to comply with the minimum standards of being a deployable clinical team (EMT)
We thank you in advance.
Emergency Medical Teams Secretariat
 
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