The overall goal of the strategic preparedness and response plan is to stop further transmission of 2019‑nCoV within China and to other countries, and to mitigate the impact of the outbreak in all countries.

Taking the above into account, the strategic objectives of the plan are to:
• Limit human-to-human transmission, including reducing secondary infections among close contacts and healthcare workers, preventing transmission amplification events, and preventing further international spread from China;
• 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 multi sectoral partnerships.

These objectives can be achieved by:
A) Rapidly establishing international coordination to deliver strategic, technical, and operational support through existing mechanisms and partnerships;
B) Scaling up country preparedness and response operations, including strengthening readiness to rapidly identify, diagnose and treat cases; identification and follow-up of contacts when feasible (with priority given to high-risk settings such as healthcare facilities); infection prevention and control in healthcare settings; implementation of health measures for travelers; and awareness raising in the population though risk communication and community engagement.
C) Accelerating priority research and innovation to support a clear and transparent global process to set research and innovation priorities to fast track and scale-up research, development, and the equitable availability of candidate therapeutics, vaccines, and diagnostics. This will build a common platform for standardized processes, protocols and tools, to facilitate multidisciplinary and collaborative research integrated with the response.

The response strategy is based on several planning assumptions. Owing to the considerable uncertainty surrounding the extent of the outbreak within China, the transmissibility of the virus, and the clinical spectrum of the disease, it will be necessary to regularly update these assumptions as gaps in our knowledge of the disease are filled.

The current response plan assumes that human-to-human transmission takes place, and that it may be amplified in specific settings, including healthcare facilities. We also assume that human-to-human transmission is widespread within Hubei, and possibly other population centres in China. It is expected that cases will continue to be exported to other countries while the outbreak continues in China. While the response emphasis will be to rapidly identify and isolate imported cases, there is a risk of clusters of cases caused by localized community transmission outside China. In some cases, countries may require operational assistance to strengthen their capacity to detect and respond to these imported cases.

However, there remain significant uncertainties around the potential for more widespread transmission outside China, and it will therefore be necessary to have contingency plans in place to mitigate the challenges this would present.

Credit: Resource Material from https://www.who.int/