In their annual debate with the Executive Director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) Andrea Ammon, MEPs of the Committee on Environment and Public Health (ENVI) discuss the recent Coronavirus outbreak and the measures to be taken to protect public health, in the European Parliament in Brussels.

Brussels

exchange of views

meeting

Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

Coronavirus outbreak (T)

AMMON, Andrea (DE)

Outbreak of Coronavirus pneumonia: extracts from the exchange of views with Andrea AMMON, Executive Director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)

Arrival of Andrea AMMON, Executive Director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

SOUNDBITE (English), Andrea AMMON, Executive Director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), <p>Coronaviruses were identified a long time ago, in the mid of 1960s and are known to infect humans and a variety of animals. Since 2003 they were already two new Coronaviruses as pathogens for humans: the SARS Coronavirus and in 2012 the MERS Coronavirus. The Coronavirus identified in 2019 in December in China is a new strain that has not previously been identified in humans. Outbreaks of novel viruses among people are always of public health concern, especially when there is little knowledge about the characteristics of the virus, how it spreads between people and how severe the resulting infections are, and how to treat them.</p>

SOUNDBITE (English), Andrea AMMON, Executive Director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), At this morning worldwide we had to 17,383 confirmed cases of Coronavirus and 362 deaths. The majority of these are reported from China and all the deaths are reported from Asia: 361 in China and one in the Philippines. In Europe we have currently 25 cases: 21 in the EU, 2 in the UK and 2 in Russia.

SOUNDBITE (English), Andrea AMMON, Executive Director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), <p>The potential impact of outbreaks of this novel Coronavirus is high. The likelihood of infection for EU citizens residing in or visiting Hubei province in China is also estimated high. The likelihood of infection for EU citizens in other Chinese provinces, we consider moderate at this stage. It may increase over the next weeks. There is a moderate-to-high likelihood that we will see further imported cases in the EU. If cases are detected early and appropriate infection, prevention and control measures are implemented, particularly in health-care settings, the likelihood of observing further limited to human transmission within EU is estimated very-low-to-low.</p>

Atmosphere in the room during the question-time (5 shots).