A sudden increase in new cases of COVID-19 – commonly known as coronavirus – is deeply concerning but the spread of the disease is not yet a pandemic, a global health body says as death toll passes 2600.
At the start of the week, there were over 77,362 cases of the coronavirus infections – that first broke out in China’s Wuhan city with has flu-like symptoms – and has caused more than 2,600 deaths.
But reports of new cases coming out of countries as far apart as South Korea and Italy and Iran in between sent shivers across the world, and the U.S. and global stock markets slipped several hundred points down on fears of a wider contagious outbreak.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average– which hit record highs this month – lost more than 1000 points in one of its worst drops on a single day.
The latest health statistics reveal that apart from China – the most affected country with cities in lockdown and citizens going through quarantine processes- and there are now 2,074 cases of COVID-19 in 28 countries, with 23 deaths.
The World Health Organization (WHO) finds the soaring infections as “deeply concerning” but not yet a global pandemic.
“Does this virus have pandemic potential? Absolutely, it has. Are we there yet? From our assessment, not yet,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday.
According to the official, the decision to use the word ‘pandemic’ is based on an ongoing assessment of the geographical spread of the virus, the severity of disease it causes, and the impact on society.
“For the moment, we are not witnessing the un-contained global spread of this virus, and we are not witnessing large-scale severe disease or death.”
A joint WHO-China mission has ascertains that the epidemic peaked and plateaued between 23 January and 2 February, and has been declining steadily ever since.
He stressed the need to focus on containment “while doing everything we can to prepare for a potential pandemic”.
