The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 can already be defined as a “pandemic” after the number of cases affected outside of China has been multiplied by 13 in two weeks and that the countries affected by the period tripled.
“We are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction“Around the world, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press conference in Geneva on Wednesday.
“We therefore considered that Covid-19 can be described as a pandemic“, he said.
“Describing the situation as a pandemic does not change the assessment of the threat posed by this coronavirus. It doesn’t change what WHO does, and it doesn’t change what countries should do“, he said.
The head of the WHO estimated that in “the days and weeks to come”, the number of cases, deaths and countries affected would increase. But he called, once again, on countries to act to “contain“the epidemic.
“We have to be more aggressive“, insisted Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, stressing that this”pandemic“could”to be controlled“.
WHO sees a pandemic the worldwide spread of a new disease, combined with the lack of immunity to the disease in the vast majority of the population.
118,619 people have been infected and 4,292 others have been killed by COVID-19 worldwide, according to the latest figures from European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
– .
