The World Health Organization (WHO) has labeled the coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) a pandemic.
WHO Director General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the number of COVID-19 cases outside China has increased 13-fold, while the number of affected countries has tripled in the past two weeks.
Speaking during a media briefing on Wednesday in Geneva, he said there are now more than 118,000 cases in 114 countries, adding that 4,291 people have lost their lives to the disease.
He said thousands more were fighting for their lives in hospitals and that the number of cases, deaths, and affected countries were expected to climb even higher in the days and weeks ahead.
Dr Tedros said WHO has been assessing the outbreak around the clock and was deeply concerned by both the alarming levels of spread and severity, as well as alarming levels of inaction.
He said: “We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.”
A pandemic is a disease that has spread across a large region (such as many continents) or all over the world.
The WHO boss, however, said that describing the situation as a pandemic does not change WHO’s assessment of the threat posed by the virus, what WHO was doing, nor what countries should do.
He 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.”
He said WHO has never before seen a pandemic sparked by a coronavirus, adding that this was the first pandemic caused by a coronavirus.
“And we have never before seen a pandemic that can be controlled, at the same time. WHO has been in full response mode since we were notified of the first cases,” Dr Tedros said.
While saying that the organisation has been calling on countries daily to take urgent and aggressive action, he said several countries have demonstrated that the virus could be suppressed and controlled.
He said 81 countries have not reported any case, and 57 countries have reported 10 cases or less, adding “If countries detect, test, treat, isolate, trace, and mobilize their people in the response, those with a handful of cases can prevent those cases becoming clusters, and those clusters becoming community transmission.”
He advised all countries to strike a fine balance between protecting health, minimizing economic and social disruption, and respecting human rights.
“WHO’s mandate is public health. But we’re working with many partners across all sectors to mitigate the social and economic consequences of this pandemic.
“This is not just a public health crisis, it is a crisis that will touch every sector – so every sector and every individual must be involved in the fight,” he said.
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