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…
BEIJING, CHINA – JANUARY 21: Chinese children wear protective masks as they wait to board trains at Beijing Railway station before the annual Spring Festival on January 21, 2020 in Beijing, China. The number of cases of a deadly new coronavirus rose to nearly 300 in mainland China Tuesday as health officials stepped up efforts to contain the spread of the pneumonia-like disease which medicals experts confirmed can be passed from human to human. The number of those who have died from the virus in China climbed to six on Tuesday and cases have been reported in other parts of Asia including in Thailand, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
(Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)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).
