Fears of Coronavirus spread

WHO chief warned about coronavirus

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus- the head of World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that confirmed cases of coronavirus could be the “tip of the iceberg”. His warning came after some people in some European and Asian countries confirmed the cases of coronavirus. These people never travelled to China but still transmitted the coronavirus.

The French international news agency AFP has reported  the remarks of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’ as members of a WHO-led “international expert mission” flew to China on Monday to help coordinate a response to the outbreak that has so far infected more than 40,000 people and killed 908 in the country.

Tedros Adhanom took to twitter to express his concerns and said that “there’ve been some concerning instances of onward #2019nCoV spread from people with no travel history to (China),” Ghebreyesus tweeted Sunday, using the virus’s provisional scientific name. “The detection of a small number of cases may indicate more widespread transmission in other countries; in short, we may only be seeing the tip of the iceberg.”

WHO chief has also warned that this virus needs to be contained otherwise it spread to other countries could accelerate. He said that “Containment remains our objective, but all countries must use the window of opportunity created by the containment strategy to prepare for the virus’s possible arrival.”

Outside mainland China, there have been more than 350 infections reported in nearly 30 places. There have been two deaths, one in the Philippines and the other in Hong Kong. Several countries have banned arrivals from China while major airlines have suspended flights, and Air China cancelled some of its flights to the United States.

WHO-led mission to China is being headed up by Bruce Aylward, a veteran of previous health emergencies. Aylward oversaw the WHO operations in 2014-2016 to contain the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

WHO said in recent days there had been “some stabilising” in the numbers of new cases of the coronavirus in China. But the UN agency cautioned it was too early to say if the virus had peaked. The SARS-like virus is believed to have emerged late last year in the central city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province where millions of people are under lockdown in a bid to stop it spreading.

                                                       International desk