We have woken up to a new update on the CoVID-19 epidemic, sorry, not epidemic. It's officially a global pandemic now as declared by the World Helath Organisation on 12 March. This virus has rapidly spread to more than 121,000 people from Asia to the Middle East, Europe and the United States.
Declaring a pandemic is charged with major political and economic ramifications, global health experts say. It can further rattle already fragile world markets and lead to more stringent travel and trade restrictions. WHO officials had been reluctant to declare a global pandemic, which is generally defined as an illness that spreads far and wide throughout the world (which is exactly what we've been seeing happen over the past few months of 2020).
“In the past two weeks the number of cases outside China has increased thirteenfold and the number of affected countries has tripled,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference at the organization’s headquarters in Geneva. “In the days and weeks ahead, we expect to see the number of cases, the number of deaths and the number of affected countries to climb even higher.”
Tedros said several countries have been able to suppress and control the outbreak, but he scolded other world leaders for failing to act quickly enough or drastically enough to contain the spread.“We’re deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction,” he said, just before declaring the pandemic. “We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear.”Cases in China and South Korea have significantly declined, he said, adding that 81 countries don’t have any confirmed cases and 57 countries have 10 or fewer cases.
At this point Antarctica is the only continent in the world that is CoVID-19 free. Until further updates and from all of us at The Malaysian Traveller and Sedunia Travel, stay safe, please take care of your health and look out for others.
Sources: BBC, Channel News Asia, WHO