The World Health Organization (WHO) is officially calling the novel coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.
“WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we are deeply concerned by both the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction,” says WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.”
According to WHO, as of March 11 there were 118,000 cases in 114 countries, and 4,291 people have lost their lives.
To read more, visit WHO.
Featured image: Transmission electron micrograph of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles, isolated from a patient. Image captured and color-enhanced at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility in Fort Detrick, Md. Courtesy National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
