Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
Situation Report – 52

SITUATION IN NUMBERS 
Total and new cases in last 24 hours Globally
125 048 confirmed (6729 new)
4613 deaths (321 new)

China
80 981 confirmed (26 new)
 3173 deaths (11 new)

Outside of China
44 067 confirmed (6703 new)
 1440 deaths (310 new)
 117 countries/territories/
 areas (4 new)

WHO RISK ASSESSMENT
China Very High
Regional Level Very High
Global Level Very High


HIGHLIGHTS
• Four new countries/territories/areas (French Polynesia, Turkey, Honduras and
Côte d’Ivoire) have reported cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.

• The Clinical Unit continues to convene clinicians around the globe, twice
weekly by teleconference (COVID-19 Clinical Network) to share knowledge
and experiences from clinicians caring for COVID-19 patients and highlight
operational challenges and technical questions. For more details, please see
‘subject in focus’.

• At the Member States information session held today, WHO Director-General
reiterated that countries should not give up on stopping the outbreak now
that WHO has characterized it as a pandemic. A shift from containment to
mitigation would be wrong and dangerous. This is a controllable pandemic.
For detailed information, please see here.

• On 11 March, ICAO and WHO issued a joint statement to reminding all
stakeholders of the importance of existing regulations and guidance. For more
information, please see here.

Figure 1. 
Countries, territories or areas with reported confirmed cases of COVID-19, 12 March 2020

SUBJECT IN FOCUS: Clinical Case Management- update
The Clinical Unit continues to convene clinicians around the globe, twice weekly by teleconference (COVID-19
Clinical Network) to share knowledge and experiences from clinicians caring for COVID-19 patients and highlight
operational challenges and technical questions. There are over 30 countries represented on this call.
The major clinical challenge reported is the severity of the disease. A recent surge in critically ill patients requiring
mechanical ventilation has strained some health systems and exhausted biomedical supplies and staff. This has highlighted the need to better support health systems become ready for such a surge in cases. Thus, the team alongside our logistic colleagues and partners are developing a Clinical Concept of Operations intended to guide countries with surge decision -making, and tools to accelerate the availability of oxygen and biomedical equipment.
In addition, the Clinical unit is regularly updating other products for clinical case management:

• The updated Clinical Management Guidance for COVID-19. This will include more detailed information
about the care of patients with mild and severe illness, young children, pregnant and postpartum women
and information about breastfeeding. To be released on 13 March 2020.

• The WHO Clinical Care Training materials continue to be available on openwho.org. This covers an approach
to clinical care from pre-triage/triage, diagnosis/testing and critical care interventions, such as lung
protective ventilation.

• The Global COVID-19 Clinical Data Platform continues to collect e clinical data from hospitalized patients
to inform understanding core of clinical natural history and several.

 STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
WHO’s strategic objectives for this response are to:
• Interrupt human-to-human transmission including reducing secondary infections among close contacts
and health care workers, preventing transmission amplification events, and preventing further
international spread*;
• Identify, isolate and care for patients early, including providing optimized care for infected patients;
• Identify and reduce transmission from the animal source;
• Address crucial unknowns regarding clinical severity, extent of transmission and infection, treatment
options, and accelerate the development of diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines;
• Communicate critical risk and event information to all communities and counter misinformation;
• Minimize social and economic impact through multisectoral partnerships.

*This can be achieved through a combination of public health measures, such as rapid identification, diagnosis
and management of the cases, identification and follow up of the contacts, infection prevention and control in
health care settings, implementation of health measures for travelers, awareness-raising in the population and
risk communication.