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The World Health Organization, WHO, has declared the outbreak of a new coronavirus in China, a global health emergency.
The WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus made the announcement at a press conference in Geneva.
WHO’s emergency committee on the epidemic had reportedly met Thursday afternoon and recommended designating the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, PHEIC.
The decision had been “almost unanimous,” Didier Houssin, chair of the emergency committee, said at the press conference.
“The main reason for this declaration is not because of what is happening in China, but because of what is happening in other countries,” Tedros said at the press conference.
“Our 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. Let me be clear, this declaration is not a vote of no confidence in China. On the contrary, WHO continues to have confidence in China’s capacity to control the outbreak.”
Tedros also outlined recommendations made by the emergency committee to control the outbreak, including accelerating the development of vaccines and drugs and combatting the spread of misinformation.
This is the sixth time WHO has used that label, Public Health Emergency of International Concern, PHEIC. since the designation was introduced 15 years ago.
In other news, The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) disclosed a close brush with death, recounting how he and his colleagues were caught in the crossfire of an Israeli air strike at a Yemeni airport, a stark reminder of the dangerous environments in which global health efforts often unfold.
In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reflected on the harrowing attack, describing a profound sense of being “completely exposed” as the event unfolded, leaving at least six people dead.
On Thursday, he and fellow UN staff were departing Sanaa, located in western Yemen, after concluding a mission to negotiate the release of UN detainees and evaluate the nation’s dire humanitarian conditions. Their departure was interrupted when the airport came under attack.