WHO confirms 80,988 cases of coronavirus across 33 countries

The World Health Organisation has said that as of February 26 there are 80,988 confirmed cases of COVID-19 across 33 countries. However, the WHO Europe director Hans Kluge has also claimed that there is no need for panic over the deadly coronavirus outbreak. In news conference in Rome, he said that “there is no need to panic” adding that the mortality rate is about two per cent and now just one per cent in China which has 96.5 per cent of the global cases. Kluge also wanted people to “bear in mind” that “four out of five patients have mild symptoms and recover”. 

Kluge further added that the response cooperation to the deadly pathogen will be enhanced in order to ensure that all regions of Italy are equally prepared following the surge of cases in the northern part of the country. The press conference by the regional manager of WHO Europe came after France reported its second death which is also the first French victim of the coronavirus. He was a 60-year-old teacher, and the first was a Chinese tourist. However, Italy has reported at least 11 deaths due to COVID-19. 

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WHO no longer uses 'pandemic'

Earlier, a WHO official had said that the organisation no longer has a process for declaring any new viral outbreak a pandemic, but the spread of coronavirus remains an international emergency. Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesperson for WHO told the media that there was no official category for a pandemic. He said that WHO ceased to employ the old phasing system. A 'pandemic' was used to denote the outbreak of a newer pathogen that was transmitted human-to-human across the globe, he said. 

According to reports, the Geneva-based agency had declared the H1N1 swine flu outbreak a pandemic in the year 2009. This led to several pharmaceutical companies scrambling to develop a vaccine, despite the outbreak turning out to be a mild one. It also earned the WHO criticism for the decision. On the other hand, the WHO has declared the Wuhan virus that originated in Hubei province, China in December 2019 a public health emergency of international concern.

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