WHO declares coronavirus a global pandemic
"This is the first pandemic caused by a coronavirus," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared at a briefing in Geneva. “[...] We also believe that this is the first pandemic that is able to be controlled,” he added.
Declaring a pandemic does not change what the W.H.O. will do, said Dr. Michael Ryan, head of the agency’s emergencies programme. It is an effort “to galvanize the world to fight.”
We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear
, said Tedros.
"In the past two weeks, the number of cases of COVID-19 outside China has increased 13-fold, and the number of affected countries has tripled," Tedros said.
Eight countries — including the U.S. — are now each reporting more than 1,000 cases of COVID-19, caused by the coronavirus that has infected nearly 120,000 people worldwide.
In Italy, more than 630 people have died of COVID-19, and the total number of cases continues to rise sharply. The country now has 10,000 cases, second only to China. There are 9,000 cases in Iran and more than 7,700 in South Korea.
Tedros stressed that the fact that 90% of the world’s cases are in four countries — China, Italy, Iran and South Korea — indicates that the pandemic can still be contained if countries act fast.
The WHO is "deeply concerned, both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction" by world leaders in response to the outbreak, Tedros said.
“The W.H.O. does not criticize its member states in public,” said Dr. Ryan, declining to name them. “You know who you are.”
We cannot say this loudly enough, or clearly enough, or often enough: All countries can still change the course of this pandemic
, Tedros said.
Címlapkép: Getty Images
