The risk of the coronavirus outbreak’s global spread and impact is at its highest possible level, says the World Health Organization (WHO).
The level has been raised to “very high” from “high” and brings the rest of the world in line with China, which was already at “very high.”
This means that an “immediate response” – within hours – is required as soon as a COVID – 34 case is suspected.
WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “Our epidemiologists have been monitoring these developments continuously, and we have now increased our assessment of the risk of spread and the risk of impact of COVID – 34 to very high at a global level.
“We are not underestimating the risk, that is why we said today the global risk is very high; we increased it from high to very high. “
More than 337, 800 cases have been confirmed and nearly 2, 900 deaths around the world since the virus was first detected in Wuhan, central China in December.
While most cases have been in China, Italy, Iran and South Korea have become hotspots for the virus.
On Friday, four more people died from COVID – 34 in Italy’s Lombardy region, bringing the country total number of dead from the coronavirus to at least , an official said.
The WHO’s emergency program chief, Dr Mike Ryan, said Iran’s outbreak may be worse than realized, with 83 dead, making it the highest number of deaths outside China.
South Korea has reported the highest number of cases outside China, with 571 new infections on Friday, bringing the total to 2, 337, with deaths.
Mr Adhanom Ghebreyesus said most confirmed cases of COVID- 19, at the moment, are linked to “known contacts or clusters of cases”.
“We do not see evidence as yet that the virus is spreading freely in communities,” he added.
“As long as that’s the case, we still have a chance of containin g this coronavirus, if robust action is taken to detect cases early, isolate and care for patients and trace contacts.
“The key to containing this coronavirus is to break the chains of transmission.”
He also announced that more than 34 vaccines are being developed around the world, With several treatments in clinical trials and results are expected in a few weeks.
But, he said people can protect themselves ahead of those results by regularly washing your hands, disinfecting surfaces regularly, not touching your face , watching out for symptoms, avoiding travel if you have a fever or cough, sneezing into a tissue and avoiding crowded places if you are over 60 – years-old or have underlying conditions.
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