Health organization WHO has declared COVID-19 a pandemic on Wednesday, or an epidemic on a global scale.
To date, the WHO COVID-19, the disease that causes the corona virus, still qualified as an international health crisis in various countries. In a pandemic, the disease spreads on a larger scale in different countries on different continents and a relatively large number of people are affected by the disease.
Worldwide, up to and including Wednesday morning, a total of more than 118,000 infections with the COVID-19 virus were detected. Nearly 4,300 people have succumbed to COVID-19.
A coronavirus has never led to a pandemic, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, at a press conference on Wednesday. According to him, this does not mean that the virus needs to be tackled differently. “Countries must prepare their hospitals on a large scale, continue to educate the population and carefully isolate and treat every confirmed infected person.”
According to Tedros, it is still possible to stop the rapid spread of the virus. “We are in the same boat and must act properly and remain calm,” says Ghebreyesus.
Follow the latest developments regarding the virus in our live blog.
The coronavirus in short
- The virus spreads mainly through cough and sneeze drops that hang in the air for a short time. Anyone who shows no symptoms is hardly a risk of infection.
- An infected person infects two to three others on average. This number can decrease with good precautions.
- The vast majority of patients have mild (flu-like) symptoms.
- Almost all deaths concern older or already sick people. You can protect these people with precautionary measures.
- Read here what the most important precautions are.
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