The World Health Organization has today declared the corona virus infections, which cause the Covid 19 disease as a pandemic.
What this means is that, per the WHO’s own definition of a pandemic, “the worldwide spread of a new disease,” Corona Virus is now a global crisis.
The virus spread to over 110 countries within three months since first being detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in Dec. 2019. The virus has spread to every continent except Antarctica and infected more than 121,000 people, causing 4,300 deaths.
WHO’s declaration today brings to an end a reticence that the world body had exercised, as it feared that declaring the disease a pandemic would unnecessarily stir panic.
However4, experts suggested the conditions for pandemic were met in late February as case numbers in Italy, South Korea and Iran began to rapidly climb.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, made the announcement at a press briefing on Wednesday.
On March 9, Tedros had announced “the threat of a pandemic has become very real” but reiterated the spread of disease was still under control/
The formal declaration of a pandemic doesn’t mean it’s time to panic. Rather, it allows health authorities around the world to begin planning for a new phase in battling the disease, outlining strategies to mitigate further spread and help the public understand the signs and symptoms of COVID-19 infection.
WHO last declared a pandemic on June 11, 2009, when widespread transmission of the influenza virus H1N1 — or “swine flu” — rapidly spread across the globe. In that instance, it took the WHO a little under two months to move from a public health emergency notification to “pandemic.” At the time, more than 70 countries had reported cases of the disease.