“This not a time for panic – it is time to be prepared."
-- @antonioguterres on the #coronavirus, as @WHO raises the risk assessment of #COVID19 to very high at the global level.
a
@DrTedrosTedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
In my briefing today, I informed media that based on latest #coronavirus developments we have now increased our assessment of the risk of spread and the risk of impact of #COVID19 to very high at a global level.
HE WORLD HEALTH Organisation last night raised its #globalrisk assessment of the new coronavirus to its highest level after the epidemic spread to sub-Saharan Africa and financial markets slumped.
The virus has proliferated around the globe over the past week, emerging on every continent except Antarctica, prompting many governments and businesses to try to stop people from travelling or gathering in crowded places.
It has killed more than 2,900 people and infected over 85,000 worldwide — the vast majority in China — since it emerged apparently from an animal market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late December.
But it is its rapid spread to new zones that has authorities concerned — in the past 24 hours, it has affected nine new countries, from Azerbaijan to Mexico to New Zealand.
“We have now increased our assessment of the risk of spread and the risk of impact of COVID-19 to very high at global level,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.
journal #coronavirusrisk -5027154-Feb2020
