The Ministry of Health's (MOH) Control and Command Center (CCC) continues to monitor the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) situation in China and to coordinate with all relevant parties to deal with this global event by taking a multitude of precautionary measures.
CCC is the public health emergency operation center under the supervision of MOH and in cooperation with all its departments and health affairs throughout the Kingdom. It cooperates with local and international experts and communicates continuously with the international organizations to ensure preparedness and rapid response to public health threats with the highest efficiency.
CCC interfaces between various stakeholders: it oversees MOH’s preparedness to public health events and leads health surveillance to handle national and international health threats. CCC monitors, evaluates and controls existing MOH entities—based on predefined levels of risk and liaises. CCC's duties include: minimize the likelihood of a health crisis through prevention measures, ensure the required medical infrastructure (staff and equipment), develop response plans to contain a possible crisis and train and drill on response plans.
The Center also monitors threats, triggers and alerts, and oversees preparedness in all MOH’s facilities across regions.
Lastly, it leads the rapid response to public health threats, develops crisis-specific action plans and monitors crisis response activities.
CCC has leapt into action since the virus was first detected in China and taken several precautionary measure, applied the internationally approved health regulations applicable in such cases, and worked hand-in-hand with all relevant authorities. To address and combat the disease, CCC has closely followed the epidemiological situation, by reaching out to the WHO and other organizations of relevance. It has also coordinated with the General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA) to monitor the direct and transit flights to and from China. By doing so, the Center seeks to collect information about the persons traveling to, or coming from, the regions where 2019-nCoV cases have been reported, in order apply a health assessment on them at the points of entry into the Kingdom, and subsequently, keep them under observation to ensure their safety.
The Ministry reiterated that, to date, no 2019-nCoV cases have been reported in the Kingdom. It is to be noted that MOH is implementing a multitude of vigorous precautionary measures to prevent infiltration of the virus into the Kingdom.