On Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the coronavirus, aka COVID-19, a pandemic.
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted, “WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction.”
He wrote, “In the past two weeks, the number of cases of COVID-19 outside China has increased 13-fold and the number of affected countries has tripled.”
However, he also stressed that declaring the coronavirus crisis a pandemic does not mean it is an end of the world and things can still be turned around.
Dr. Ghebreyesus noted, “Eighty-one countries have not reported any COVID-19 cases, and 57 countries have reported 10 cases or less and of the 118,000 COVID-19 cases reported globally in 114 countries, more than 90 percent of cases are in just four countries, and two of those — China and South Korea — have significantly declining epidemics.”
“We cannot say this loudly enough, or clearly enough, or often enough: all countries can still change the course of this pandemic,” he added.
Globally, the virus has affected 126,369 and killed 4,634 people so far. In the United States, the virus has affected nearly 1,330 and killed 38 people so far.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said, “We would like the country to realize that, as a nation, we can’t be doing the kinds of things we were doing a few months ago. That it doesn’t matter if you’re in a state that has no cases or one case, you have to start taking seriously what you can do now.”
“Everybody should say, ‘All hands on deck. This is what we need to do,’” Dr. Fauci added.
On Monday, Vice President Mike Pence, who heads the coronavirus task force, said that millions of diagnostics test kits for the coronavirus are on the way to clinics and labs across the nation.
Pence said, “Over a million tests have been distributed and before the end of this week, another 4 million tests will be distributed.”
On Monday, President Donald Trump reassured the public that his administration has taken measures to keep the coronavirus crisis under control.
Trump said, “This was something that we were thrown into and we’re going to handle it, we have been handling it very well.”
The WHO reported that cases of COVID-19 have now been spotted in 133 countries and on every continent except Antarctica.
Globally, hopes of stopping the spread are fading fast. Iran and South Korea have been battling major outbreaks of the coronavirus. Italy ordered a travel lockdown of the entire country.
Guiseppe Conte, Italy’s Prime Minister, said, “Our habits must be changed, changed now. We all have to give up something for the good of Italy. When I speak of Italy, I speak of our dear ones, of our grandparents and of our parents. We will succeed only if we all collaborate and we adapt right away to these more stringent norms.”
