The World Health Organization on Thursday declared a global emergency over the deadly coronavirus spreading from China, after the Asian giant reported its biggest single-day jump in the death toll.
The UN health agency based in Geneva had initially downplayed the threat posed by the disease, which has now killed 170 people in China, but revised its risk assessment after crisis talks.
“Our greatest concern is the potential for the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a briefing in Geneva.
“We must all act together now to limit further spread… We can only stop it together.”
Tedros nevertheless said travel and trade restrictions with China were unnecessary to stem the spread of the virus, which has spread to more than 15 other countries across the globe.
Many countries have already urged their citizens not to visit China, while some have banned entry for travelers from the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus first surfaced.
The US reported its first case of a person catching the virus from another person on American soil – a man in Chicago who contracted the illness from his wife, who had traveled to Wuhan.
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