The World Health Organisation on Wednesday declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, officially characterized COVID-19 a pandemic at a media briefing.
The WHO panellists said it's still not too late. Officials wanted countries to pull out all stops to fight the transmission of the virus and aggressive public health action from the beginning of the outbreak can do that.
"All countries can still change the course of this pandemic. If countries detect, test, treat, isolate, trace and mobilize their people in the response," he said. “We are deeply concerned by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction.”
Iran and Italy who are at the new front lines of the battle against the virus that started in China have recorded increased numbers of cases and deaths over the past few weeks.
“They’re suffering but I guarantee you other countries will be in that situation soon," said Michael J Ryan, WHO's Executive director, who also believed there is underdiagnosis of the virus in some countries.
Cases worldwide have reached 1,22,235 with reported deaths at 4,386.
On tackling the virus
The emergencies chief added that on the decision to shut down schools or particular parts of the country - it is based entirely on a country's risk assessment.
They make such decisions based on a mixture of issues - the risk and likely impact of the measure, the acceptability of the measure, the length of time the measure must be left in place.
Social distancing also might not be as effective in countries with lesser number of reported cases, as contact tracing, isolation of contacts and cases, and quarantine of contacts - "means you're chasing the virus."
It is effective only when the governments have lost sight of the virus due to the lack of aggressive public health action at the beginning of the outbreak.
The German Chancellor Angela Merkel had warned on Wednesday that the coronavirus could infect almost 58 million people which is up to 70 per cent of the country's population.
The number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in India has risen to 64 out of which three have recovered.
(With inputs from agencies)