The WHO declared the novel coronavirus as a pandemic. (Image via Siasat)

WHO declares COVID-19 as pandemic

Alfonsus Adi Putra
Business & Industry
Medical and Health
Mar 12, 2020
1984
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) as a pandemic. Speaking in Geneva, Switzerland, the Director-General of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, made the declaration without changing the global assessment procedure. In other words, the WHO will do the same, and the world should do the same in tackling the virus.

Ghebreyesus worried that the efforts taken to contain the outbreak and lethality of the COVID-19 are falling short. The WHO even stated that the inaction levels are alarming.

He projected that the number of confirmed cases and mortality will be increasing in the next days and weeks. Therefore, Ghebreyesus asserted that after a thorough assessment by the WHO, the disease can now be classified as a pandemic.

The WHO clarified that the term “pandemic” cannot be misused as it will result in public fear. Specifically, the pandemic has three criteria:
1. A virus that causes death,
2. Continuous human-to-human infection, and
3. A global outbreak.

In history, the WHO had recorded chickenpox, measles, typhus, Spanish flu, black death, and even HIV/AIDS. According to John Hopkins, per Wednesday, COVID-19 has infected 121,564 people in 118 countries. Over 90 percent of the confirmed cases are just in four countries, and the two countries struck the hardest by the outbreak, China and S. Korea, are seeing a significant decline in these cases.

Source: https://bit.ly/2vPQI3N

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