Coronavirus: WHO declares international health emergency
The UN's health arm said the announcement was "to protect countries with weaker health systems."
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday to declared the coronavirus that originated in China a public health emergency of international concern, as the United States reported its first case of person-to-person transmission.
The health agency described the emergency as an "extraordinary event" that constitutes a risk to other countries and requires a coordinated global response.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO's Director-General, said: "This declaration is to protect especially countries with weaker health systems and to prepare for that."
Tedros was effusive in his praise of how China have gone about dealing with the crisis, describing the country as a benchmark for handling such outbreaks. "In many ways China is setting a new standard for outbreak response."
The WHO chief continued: "The Chinese government is to be congratulated for the extraordinary measures it has taken to contain the outbreak, despite the severe social and economic impact those measures are having on the Chinese people."
"We would have seen many more cases outside China by now – and probably deaths – if it were not for the government’s efforts, and the progress they have made to protect their own people and the people of the world."
"The speed with which China detected the outbreak, isolated the virus, sequenced the genome and shared it with WHO and the world are very impressive, and beyond words. So is China’s commitment to transparency and to supporting other countries."
The death toll from the new virus
currently stands at 170 and the number of reported cases at well over 8,000. It has now infected more people in China than were affected during the outbreak of SARS, a relation of the coronavirus.
The WHO made the global concern declaration after it was revealed that eight of the deaths related to the virus had occurred outside of the outbreak's epicenter, China's Hubei province.
Last week, the UN organization
decided against this top-level health billing when the death toll was below 50. However, consensus seemed to be changing this week as the reported deaths continued to increase as
the body said it "regrets" previously calling the virus risk "moderate."
WHO chief said the issue needed to be re-evaluated after human-to-human infections started occurring outside of China. The first transmission of this kind in Europe was reported in Germany while the United States, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam and South Korea have all noted the disease under the same circumstances.
The UN's health arm said the move was to protect countries with "weaker health systems." However, the WHO also said there was no reason for measures that unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade.
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