The World Health Organisation has characterised the outbreak of the new coronavirus as a pandemic, says director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
“We are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction. We have therefore made the assessment that Covid-19 can be characterised as a pandemic,” he told a news conference.
One of the newly announced six cases is reported to be in a critical condition in a Gauteng hospital. He added the man has comorbidity, meaning the presence of one or more conditions in addition to the primary condition. Now there are more than 118 000 cases in 114 countries and 4 291 people have died, Tedros said, with the numbers expected to climb.WHO officials have signalled for weeks that they may use the word “pandemic” as an descriptive term but stressed that it does not carry legal significance. The novel coronavirus is not the flu.
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