Coronavirus disease declared as pandemic: WHO

CAIRO - 12 March 2020: The Coronavirus (Covid 19) disease was announced a global pandemic by the World Health Organization on Tuesday evening after it infected 118,000 people in 114 countries and claimed the lives of 4,291 so far.

“WHO is deeply concerned by the alarming levels of the coronavirus spread, severity & inaction, & expects to see the number of cases, deaths & affected countries climb even higher. Therefore, we made the assessment that COVID19 can be characterized as a pandemic,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

announced

in a press conference.

.@WHO is deeply concerned by the alarming levels of the #coronavirus spread, severity & inaction, & expects to see the number of cases, deaths & affected countries climb even higher. Therefore, we made the assessment that #COVID19 can be characterized as a pandemic. https://t.co/97XSmyigME pic.twitter.com/gSqFm947D8

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) March 11, 2020

“In the past two weeks, the number of cases of COVID-19 outside China has increased 13-fold, and the number of affected countries has tripled” he added, continuing “In the days and weeks ahead, we expect to see the number of cases, the number of deaths, and the number of affected countries climb even higher.”

WHO announced that the declaration of the pandemic does not change the necessity to follow the hygienic instructions to avoid the virus infection.

The formal declaration of a #COVID19 #pandemic does not change the fact that you can - and should - take these simple steps to protect yourself and your loved ones.

Watch and share this @WHO video!

pic.twitter.com/4RZgrRVBlI

— WHO Thailand (@WHOThailand) March 11, 2020