The World Health Organisation (WHO) has today declared coronavirus a global pandemic. This was necessitated by the fast spread of the disease on a global scale, threatening humanity. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO Director-General made the declaration at a press conference today, at the Organisation headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. In his statement which partly reads, “In the past two weeks, the number of cases outside China has increased thirteen-fold and the number of affected countries has tripled”,
“In the days and weeks ahead, we expect to see the number of cases, the number of deaths and the number of affected countries to climb even higher.” Dr Ghebreyesus noted that many countries have demonstrated effort to put the outbreak on the check, however, criticize other countries for displaying a nonchalant attitude towards containing the virus.
However, he expressed concern on the level of the spread of the virus and its severity through the alarming inaction, saying “we have ringed the alarm loud and clear now”. He added, “We cannot say this loudly enough or clearly enough or often enough, all countries can still change the course of this pandemic. He noted that though some countries are battling with lack of capacity, while others struggle with lack of resources and some are battling with lack of resolve, he said.
Nigeria recorded its first case of the epidemic on February 27, an Italian who entered the country from Milan, Italy brought in the disease. The deadly virus has claimed more than 4,000 lives and still counting with a spread in over 90 countries with about 120,000 persons tested positive.
