New coronavirus disease may be contained but need to act fast: WHO
The window of opportunity to contain the wider international spread of the epidemic of the New coronavirus disease is closing, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Friday, and countries must act fast if they are to control it.
Asked whether the outbreak is at a "tipping point" after new cases and deaths from COVID-19 were reported in Iran and Lebanon, the WHO's director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he still believed the virus could be contained, but added: "The window of opportunity is narrowing, so we need to act quickly before it closes completely."
A novel coronavirus, designated as 2019-nCoV, emerged in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019. As of January 24, 2020, at least 830 cases had been diagnosed in nine countries: China, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Vietnam, Taiwan, Nepal, and the United States.
Twenty-six fatalities occurred, mainly in patients who had serious underlying illness. Although many details of the emergence of this virus — such as its origin and its ability to spread among humans — remain unknown, an increasing number of cases appear to have resulted from human-to-human transmission.
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