World Health Organisation declares coronavirus outbreak as pandemic

Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a news conference on the situation of the coronavirus (COVID-2019), in Geneva, Switzerland. [Reuters]

The World Health Organization sees the outbreak of the new coronavirus as a pandemic, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.

“We are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction. We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic,” he told a news conference.