“We must all act together now to limit further spread.”
The World Health Organisation has declared the Coronavirus outbreak a global public health emergency.
WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed the news today stating that the measure has been introduced to stop the virus from affecting countries with weaker health systems.
So far, over 150 people have died from the Coronavirus. All of these cases have been in China.
“Over the past few weeks, we have witnessed the emergence of a previously unknown pathogen, which has escalated into an unprecedented outbreak, and which has been met by an unprecedented response,” he said today.
"We must support countries with weaker health systems"-@DrTedros #2029nCoV
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) January 30, 2020
“So far we have not seen any deaths outside China, for which we must all be grateful.
“Although these numbers are still relatively small compared to the number of cases in China, we must all act together now to limit further spread.”
Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that WHO has continued confidence that China will be able to contain the outbreak.
So far, there have been 7834 confirmed cases of the Coronavirus, 99 percent of them occurring in China. 170 people have died so far as a result of the outbreak.
“We don’t know what sort of damage this virus could do if it were to spread in a country with a weaker health system,” said Adhanom.
“We must act now to help countries prepare for that possibility.”
