WHO declares coronavirus outbreak a pandemic

The World Health Organization (WHO) considers the current worldwide spread of a new type of coronavirus to be a pandemic. The WHO has not yet used the term pandemic to indicate an epidemic of a global dimension. Worldwide, over 120,000 people have been infected with coronavirus, of which more than 4,000 have been infected.

“We are deeply concerned about both the alarming level of spread and seriousness (contagion) and the worrying level of non-doing. We have therefore evaluated that COVID-19 may be characterized as a pandemic,” Ghebreyesus said. COVID-19 is a term for a disease that coronavirus causes.

WHO Crisis Assistance Coordinator Michael Ryan said the use of the term pandemic is a description of the current situation and does not change what the organization is already doing. He added that hard-hit countries Iran and Italy are now the central front of the campaign against coronavirus. He also warned that other states could find themselves in a similar situation very soon.

Ryan also said that many people have the wrong impression of a flu experience that a pandemic is an uncontrolled spread of the disease. Developments in China or South Korea prove that such an assessment of the situation is not true. “The observation shows that there is a strong element of control of the disease,” he said. This does not mean total stoppage of the infection, but a chance of reducing the number of new cases.

WHO officials have long indicated that the organization will approach the term pandemic for coronavirus infections while stressing that such a classification of the disease is of no legal significance. Due to the spread of the disease, the WHO declared a global emergency in late January. However, experts agree that the designation of a pandemic emphasizes the exceptional nature of the situation and the need for global cooperation.