WHO director says countries must ‘act aggressively now to contain coronavirus’ and warns epidemics in Italy and Iran ‘demonstrate what this virus is capable of’
Dr Ghebreyesus told reporters of COVID-19’s ‘pandemic potential’ in Geneva
Comments come as global cases appear to overtake rate of Chinese infections
President Emmanuel Macron said France, the world’s most visited country, was preparing for a jump in coronavirus cases
By TIM STICKINGS and RYAN FAHEY
DAILYMAIL.COM
27 February 2020
The head of the World Health Organisation today told governments to ‘act aggressively’ to contain the global coronavirus crisis.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the major virus outbreaks in Iran and Italy in recent days ‘demonstrate what this virus is capable of’.
The global health chief warned that it would be a ‘fatal mistake, quite literally’ for other nations to assume they will not be affected by the outbreak.
Pointing to a decline in new cases in China, Tedros said: ‘It’s what’s happening in the rest of the world that’s now our greatest concern’.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva, Tedros said the epidemic was at a ‘decisive point’.
‘If you act aggressively now, you can contain this virus, you can prevent people getting sick, you can save lives,’ he said.
‘There does not appear to be widespread community transmission,’ he added.
‘This virus has pandemic potential,’ the WHO director-general said. ‘This is not a time for fear. This is a time for taking action to prevent infection and save lives now.’
Tedros emphasised that all countries should ensure that their health systems were prepared for an outbreak.
‘We are actually in a very delicate situation in which the outbreak can go in any direction based on how we handle it,’ Tedros said.
The Rest…HERE
I would surmise that Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is expecting people to have no long term memory of his previous pronouncements to the effect that there was no need, and in fact it was racist and xenophobic, for sovereign nations to take any measures to ban infected tourists and other travelers from China into their own borders. What a hypocrite. This man should be fired from his position at WHO.