World Health Organisation describes coronavirus outbreak as pandemic

National

WITH more than 118,326 confirmed cases of Covid-19 that has affected 114 countries with an increasing death toll of 4,292 deaths globally, World Health Organisation (WHO) has characterised the outbreak as a pandemic, says WHO representative Dr Luo Dapeng. Dapeng said that in the days and weeks ahead, WHO expected to see the number of confirmed cases increase, the number of deaths increase and the number of affected countries climb even higher.
“Describing the situation as a pandemic does not change WHO’s assessment of the threat posed by this virus, which is high risk globally,” he said.
“It doesn’t change what WHO is doing and it doesn’t change what countries should be doing.” Dapeng said that WHO had been assessing the outbreak around the clock since the virus first emerged on Dec 31. “In the past two weeks, the number of cases of the Covid-19 outside China has increased 13-fold and the number of affected countries has tripled,” he said.
“There are now more than 118,000 cases in 114 countries and 4,291 people have lost their lives and we expect the numbers to increase.”