WHO holds emergency meeting on coronavirus pneumonia outbreak
WHO has announced that it will make a decision on whether to declare a global pandemic over the pneumonia outbreak caused by the coronavirus.
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that it will make a decision today on whether to declare a global pandemic over the coronavirus outbreak in and outside China.
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| Photo: AP. |
Speaking after a one-day emergency meeting of a group of international experts in Geneva, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said:"There was a discussion in the committee meeting today, but in order to make a decision, we need more information. For that reason, I have decided to urgently request the committee to continue meeting tomorrow to discuss. This is an issue of global concern, so the final decision will be made after we evaluate all the evidence."
Late last year, a new virus emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Investigations at that time showed that the virus appeared mainly in a wholesale animal market. After that, the virus causing this strange pneumonia has increased rapidly in recent days, most recently the US has also confirmed an infected case. Currently, international experts are concerned about the risk of an outbreak, similar to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) pandemic that killed nearly 650 people in 2002-2003./.
