World Health Organization Declares COVID-19 Outbreak A Pandemic
This Wednesday, the World Health Organization said the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and has infected more than 121,000 people around the world has become a pandemic.
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During a press conference at the organization’s headquarters in Geneva, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom explained that,
“In the past two weeks the number of cases outside China has increased thirteen-fold and the number of affected countries has tripled. In the days and weeks ahead, we expect to see the number of cases, the number of deaths and the number of affected countries to climb even higher.”
While Tedros said several countries have shown the ability to suppress and control the outbreak, he scolded other world leaders for failing to act fast enough to contain the spread. He added, “We’re deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction,” he said, just before declaring the pandemic. “We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear.”Â
As we previously reported, there are large outbreaks of the virus in Italy, South Korea, and the United States. The country now has more than 1,000 people infected with coronavirus — but testing in the U.S. is still ramping up, meaning that number could continue to climb.
The WHO defines a pandemic as “the worldwide spread of a new disease.” Now, the determination is based on the geographic spread of a disease, the severity of illnesses it causes, and the major effects on society. According to Business Insider, the last time the WHO declared a pandemic was during the H1N1 outbreak in 2009, which infected nearly a quarter of the world’s population.
So far, the coronavirus has killed over 4,300 people.
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