The Coronavirus Is Officially Declared A Global Health Emergency
With the death toll at 170 people in China, the Coronavirus has formally been declared a global health emergency.
But the World Health Organization’s chief, Tedros Adhanom, explains that this declaration is a result of what is also happening in other countries. As stated in the BBC, there has been 98 cases of Coronavirus in 18 different countries. “The concern is that it could spread to countries with weaker health systems.” They add that the World Health Organization is working on supporting lower and middle-income countries, and they are helping them prepare for possible cases.
So far, most of the cases are from people who have traveled from the Chinese city where the virus began, which is Wuhan. But there have been eight other cases in Vietnam, Germany, Japan, and also the United States, where the virus has spread by human-to-human contact.
In the past, there have been five other global health emergencies: for the Swine flu (2009), Polio (2014), Zika (2016), and twice for Ebola (2014 and 2016).
