Corona outbreak a pandemic, but it’s not too late: WHO

ROME: Expressing alarm both about mounting infections and slow government responses, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared on Wednesday that the global coronavirus crisis is now a pandemic but said it’s not too late for countries to act.

By reversing course and using the charged word “pandemic” that it had previously shied away from, the UN health agency appeared to want to shock lethargic countries into pulling out all the stops. “All countries can still change the course of this pandemic. If countries detect, test, treat, isolate, trace and mobilize their people in the response,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO chief.

More than 121,000 people have been infected worldwide and over 4,300 have died.

The WHO added that Iran and Italy are the new front lines of the battle against the virus that started in China.

GENEVA/ROME/WASHINGTON: The World Health Organization (WHO) said for the first time on Wednesday that it now sees the novel coronavirus outbreak as a pandemic.

“We are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction,” director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva on Wednesday. “We have therefore made the assessment that Covid-19 can be characterised as a pandemic.”

The coronavirus, which emerged in China in December, has spread around the world, halting industry, bringing flights to a standstill, closing schools and forcing the postponement of sporting events and concerts. Even the Tokyo Summer Olympics are in question.

More than 119,100 people have been infected by the coronavirus across the world and 4,298 have died, the vast majority in China. Italy has had 12,462 cases and 827 deaths.

Iran’s senior vice-president Eshaq Jahangiri and two other Cabinet members reportedly may have contracted the virus, as the death toll in the country rose by 62 to 354. Iran has had over 9,000 cases.

In an unprecedented move, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has told the 60 million residents of his country they should travel only for the most urgent work or health reasons.

Pope Francis held his weekly general audience via livestream for the first time as the Vatican implemented Italy’s drastic coronavirus lockdown measures and barred the general public from St. Peter’s Square.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said “up to 70% of the population was likely to be infected” as the virus spreads around the world in the absence of a cure.

In the US, New York state deployed National Guard troops for the first time during the crisis to help contain the spread of the disease from a suburb. At least 28 people have died in the US with 1,025 infected - nearly double the 550 total confirmed cases the day before.

Google, meanwhile, recommended all of its North American employees to work from home if their roles permit, the search giant said on Tuesday.

In China, a man was pulled out alive after being trapped for 69 hours under the rubble of a collapsed quarantine hotel in Quanzhou.