Coronavirus outbreak has been declared a pandemic by World Health Organization (WHO).
The Herald gathered that the WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, made this known on Wednesday.
Ghebreyesus said: “Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. It is a word that, if misused, can cause unreasonable fear, or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over, leading to unnecessary suffering and death.
“Describing the situation as a pandemic does not change WHO’s assessment of the threat posed by this coronavirus. It doesn’t change what WHO is doing, and it doesn’t change what countries should do.
“We have never before seen a pandemic sparked by a coronavirus. And we have never before seen a pandemic that can be controlled at the same time.
“We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear. As I said on Monday, just looking at the number of COVID-19 cases and the number of countries affected does not tell the full story,
“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.
“There are now more than 118,000 cases in 114 countries, and 4,291 people have lost their lives. Thousands more are fighting for their lives in hospitals.”
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