Press Briefing Transcripts
Audio recording (MP3)
Excerpt:
Anne Schuchat: Good afternoon. We're roughly a month into our emergency response to this new virus, and I think it's a good time to stop and take stock. Confirmed cases continue to rise here in the U.S. and around the world, and we've had this initial focus on cases and responding to illness and understanding this very new virus and how it behaves in our population. I think we're at a transition point where we're entering an area of new focus and new priorities. We really are on a fast track over the next eight to ten weeks to learn as much as we can as this virus heads to the southern hemisphere and to strengthen our planning for this surge of illness that we expect to experience here in the fall. Today, the World Health Organization is announcing that the global case count is 12,954 cases in 46 countries. And, of course, here in the United States, we are contributing very much to that world case count. Our count today is 6,764 probable and confirmed cases in 48 states and the District of Columbia. There have been more than 300 hospitalizations, and we have ten deaths reported on our website although you may have heard some reports from additional sites that haven’tyet made our system. In this period of transition, we continue to update guidance to make sure that information is available. Over the weekend, we've posted updated guidance on safe mask and respirator use and also on addressing this novel virus in correctional and detention facilities. This guidance, like our earlier interim guidance, is based on what we know now and the best science available as well as the situation on the ground. There are many areas where we wish we had more science available and we're continuing to really try to fill some of those gaps. In terms of the weeks ahead, there are a couple of areas that will be under intense pressure. Understanding what this virus does in populations that are just entering the influenza season, the winter months in the southern hemisphere will be very important, our different populations at risk of illness, will the virus change and become more resistant or more severe or transmissible. What will be experienced in populations that don't have a strong health infrastructure as we do here in the United States. A second area of focus is preparing for the fall. Based on what we've learned from our surveillance experience, the laboratory testing and surge that the health care system and public health system has gone through, how can we best prepare to handle an influenza season that's normal and a potential for this new virus to cause illness or problems on top of the regular seasonal flu problems. We'll also be working across government in the early steps of development of a vaccine, and as you heard on Friday, Secretary Sebelius announced a commitment for a vaccine and pandemic stockpile of that vaccine. So there’ll be quite a bit of planning will be around the potential development of a vaccine for use and if it were to be used, what sorts of steps would be needed to actually manage an immunization campaign. Those are the kinds of things we'll be turning our attention to while we continue to support the state and local areas around the countries for whom this problem has not yet ended. In the country as a whole, the influenza-like illness patterns are starting to decrease. There are still focal areas where ongoing cases and new hospital consolidations are a daily problem but in many parts of the country influenza-like illness is returning back down to the levels that we would expect for this time of year. We need to stay ready. There may be new clusters or new communities that haven't seen the virus yet this spring, which may have problems, but much of our attention is focusing on your hemisphere and the preparations for very intense experience in the fall. So with that, I would be happy to answer questions.
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