The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called the outbreak of the coronavirus a pandemic.
As he explained during a press conference, the decision to classify it as such was made after an evaluation that coincides with the increase in the number of cases affected outside of China.
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“The WHO has been evaluating this outbreak throughout the day and we are deeply concerned with both the alarming levels of spread and severity, and the alarming levels of inaction. Therefore, we have evaluated that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic, ”he declared at a press conference.
Tedros also added that the number of infected, deaths and affected countries is likely to increase in the coming days and weeks.
The last time the WHO spoke on the subject was on March 9. Then the head of the entity announced that the risk of a coronavirus pandemic "became very real." However, it indicated that if declared as such, it would be "the first" in history to be controlled.
According to the report prepared by Johns Hopkins University, there are more than 121,560 coronavirus infected in the world. Of these, 80,969 cases are found in mainland China, 7,755 in South Korea, 10,149 in Italy, and 9,000 in Iran.
In Latin America, the last region to report cases, there are already more than ten affected countries. Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Honduras, Bolivia and Panama total almost 100 cases.