The head of the United Nations’ top health body for the first time characterized the outbreak as a pandemic, meaning it is spreading in several regions through local transmission. “We have never before seen a pandemic sparked by a coronavirus,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, adding that the declaration would not change the organization’s response to the outbreak. “Today’s declaration of a pandemic is a call to action — for everyone, everywhere,” the secretary general said in a statement. “We can still change the course of this pandemic — but that means addressing inaction,” he said. But China remains the worst affected country with more than 80,000 confirmed cases and over 3,000 deaths.

Source: Manila Times March 12, 2020 17:48 UTC