Coronavirus Outbreak: WHO Declares Global Health Emergency

By Staff, Agencies

The World Health Organization [WHO] declared a global public health emergency over the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus on Thursday, citing the potential of the virus to spread to countries not prepared to deal with it.

Declaring the public health emergency of international concern [PHEIC], WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus emphasized multiple times during a press conference in Geneva that the move was not “a vote of no confidence” in China’s ability to control the outbreak. The latest PHEIC is only the WHO’s sixth since the UN agency was given the power to make such declarations in 2005.

“Our greatest concern is the potential for the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems and which are ill prepared to deal with it,” Tedros said.

“The vast majority of cases outside of China have a travel history to Wuhan or contact with someone with a travel history to Wuhan. We don’t know what sort of damage this virus could do if it were to spread to a country with a weaker health system.”

Alongside his declaration of a global public health emergency, the WHO chief also outlined a number of recommendations to countries as they respond to the contagion’s spread, including accelerating the development of a vaccine, reviewing preparedness plans, combating the spread of misinformation, and sharing data with the United Nations body.

WHO officials, meanwhile, warned that drastic restrictions in travel and trade were not necessary, and said they opposed any move to close borders with China or restrict Chinese travelers’ access.

Amid the outbreak, numerous governments are advising against all non-essential travel to China, while countries including the US and Japan have chartered flights to Wuhan to extract citizens living inside the locked-down city of about 11 million people. Several international air carriers have scaled back or suspended flights to the country amid dwindling demand.

Tedros characterized travel restrictions as countries punishing China, which he said deserved only respect for its handling of the outbreak. “Where respect is due, then you don’t punish,” he said. “Meaning if anyone is thinking about taking measures it’s going to be wrong.”