GENEVA, March 11. / TASS /. The World Health Organization (WHO) believes that the current outbreak in the world of a disease caused by a new type of coronavirus is a pandemic. This was announced on Wednesday at a briefing in Geneva by WHO Director-General Tedros Adan Gebreyesus.
“We concluded that COVID-19 disease could be regarded as a pandemic,” he said.
–
Previously, WHO regarded the outbreak of the disease as an epidemic with multiple foci. The head of WHO expressed concern about the “alarming level of spread and severity of the disease, as well as inaction. He recalled that the disease is currently present in 114 countries, more than 118 thousand people fell ill.
The CEO warned that the word “pandemic” should not be used “inadvertently”. “If it is used incorrectly, it will cause fear or unjustified consent that the fight is lost, and this will lead to unnecessary suffering and death,” he said. The characterization of the current outbreak as a pandemic “does not change anything in WHO’s assessment of the threat of the virus,” and does not lead to a change in its activities, as well as the tasks that countries face in the fight against infection, he stressed. The head of WHO recalled that the current outbreak is the first pandemic caused by coronavirus.
–