WHO To Declare Coronavirus Public Health Emergency

The World Health Organisation (WHO) will convene on Wednesday to consider declaring the deadly China coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern after a ninth infected person died.

The panel of expert will convene in Geneva, Switzerland, to consider if the SARS like coronavirus which was diagonised in December 2019 in Wuhan, China Will be tagged a “global health emergency.”

Thailand, Japan, South Korea have reported issues, with the United States (US) reporting its first case of the deadly virus.

So far, more than 440 people are estimated to have been infected in China, where the outbreak started, while 9 death cases have been recorded.

The Chinese authorities have urged its officials to restrict its movement to Wuhan province where the case was first diagonised and further extended the precautions to millions of Chinese who will travel this weekend ahead of Chinese New Year.

This would however be the fifth emergency declaration by the WHO, after the first warning related to a swine flu outbreak in 2014 which led to the loss of over 200,000 lives.