12 March
The World Health Organization has declared the new coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted on Wednesday that "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."
He said "In the days and weeks ahead we expect to see the number of cases, the number of deaths, and the number of affected countries climb even higher."
He said the world health watchdog is "deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction."
The WHO chief said therefore COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.
At the same time, Tedros said 90 percent of those infected are either in China, South Korea, Iran or Italy, and added that all nations can change the course of the pandemic, "if countries detect, test, treat, isolate, trace and mobilize their people."
NHK
