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The killer coronavirus outbreak, which started in China, has been declared a global public health emergency.
The decision by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to say it is a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) comes as the number of people who have died from the virus has reached 170.
So far, all the deaths have occurred in China, where the virus originated in an illegal wildlife market in the city of Wuhan.
Chinese health authorities also said there were a total of 7,736 confirmed cases in every region of the country.
There have been 98 confirmed infections in 18 other countries, according to the WHO.
And they include eight cases of human-to-human transmission in Japan, Germany, Vietnam and the US.
The WHO cited the spread of the virus to 18 nations outside China as one of the main reasons for the PHEIC declaration.
The organisation’s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference in Geneva that there had been an unprecedented outbreak which was met by an unprecedented response.
He said: “Let me be clear, this declaration is not a vote of no confidence in China. Our greatest concern is the potential for the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems.”
WHO experts twice last week decided not to declare an emergency while they sought more information from China and awaited evidence of confirmed person-to-person spread of the virus in other countries, so as to meet their criteria for a global emergency.
A PHEIC is officially defined as a formal declaration of “an extraordinary event” that poses a public health risk to other states through the international spread of disease which could potentially require an international response.
It implies a situation that is “serious, sudden, unusual or unexpected”, which may call for immediate international action.
Thus, a global health emergency is a call to action and “last resort” measure.
Courtesy of Sky News
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