The deadly coronavirus outbreak that has spread from China does not yet constitute a “pandemic”, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.
A pandemic is the worldwide spread of a new disease, according to the WHO.
At least 427 people have died with more than 20,000 confirmed cases around the world, most of them in China.
More than two dozen nations have reported cases but, so far, no confirmations have been made across Africa or Latin America.
On Tuesday, three more Asian countries – Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand – confirmed infections among citizens who had not travelled to China.
Officials say 425 people have died in China and one in Hong Kong. One death has also been confirmed in the Philippines.
The new coronavirus causes severe acute respiratory infection and symptoms usually start with a fever, followed by a dry cough.
Among the main developments on Tuesday:
Taiwan said that from Friday it would deny entry to all foreign nationals who have been to mainland China in the past 14 days
Macau – a special administrative region of China and one of Asia’s biggest gambling hubs – announced that it would temporarily close down all its casinos
The UK government told all Britons in China to leave the country if they can. Many other nations are continuing to evacuate their citizens from affected areas of China
Health officials are screening about 3,700 people onboard a cruise ship off Japan after a passenger tested positive for the virus
“When you deal with an epidemic, you rapidly see that in addition to the epidemic of diseases, we often have an epidemic of information. And this is what we call ‘infodemic’,” she said.
“And so we have realised over time that this infodemic could be really an obstacle for good response and hamper the effective implementation of counter-measures.”
Source: BBC
