In a second meeting by its technical committee, the World Health Organization, WHO, finally declares the Coronavirus epidemic a global emergency. In the first meeting, the disease was declared an epidemic in China but not a global epidemic.
Latest WHO figures state that there are more than 7,800 confirmed cases globally with 7,736 confirmed in China and a further 12, 167 cases in Wuhan, the epicenter of the disease. Wuhan remains under a lockdown. There are 82 confirmed cases in 18 different countries.
There has been human to human transmission in three countries outside china, according to a release by WHO technical committee. “One of these cases is severe and there have been no deaths”.
WHO praised the response of the Chinese authorities to the epidemic threat. “China quickly identified the Virus and shared its sequence so that other countries could diagnose it quickly and protect themselves, which has resulted in rapid diagnostic tool”, the committee said, adding that China has pledged to work with countries which need support, particularly weaker countries. “The measures that China has taken are good not only for that country but also for the rest of the world.
“The committee believes that it is still possible to interrupt the virus spread, provided the countries put in place strong measures to detect diseases early, isolate and threat cases, trace contacts, and promote social distancing measures commensurate with the risk”.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Gbebroyesus tweeted that China is actually setting a new standard for outbreak response. He said that the Bank’s 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.
“We must act now to help countries prepare for that possibility. This is the time for facts, not fear. This is the time for science, not rumors. This is the time for solidarity, not stigma”, he said.
He emphasized that this should not affect international travel and trade.
“Restrictions may interrupt needed Aid and technical support, may disrupt businesses and may have negative effects” on economies of victim countries, the organization said.
Meanwhile, indications may have been that the coronavirus is actually not a new disease. A viral video by a Jamaican shows a can of insecticide which listed “human coronavirus” as one of the viruses that the insecticide can wipe out, long before the outbreak of the virus in China. This has made conspiracy theorists go to town insisting that Coronavirus is just another disease introduced in china for population control by globalists. They tend to cite statements allegedly credited to the Micosoft Mogul, Bill Gates, quoting him as saying that an epidemic may kill about six million of the world population. There has been some unprecedented focus on Chinese bush meat market by international press just prior to the outbreak. There have been claims that Ebola, Aids, SARS and other diseases were genetically manipulated for population control reasons. There has, however, been no empirical proof of this.
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