World Health Organisation declares coronavirus outbreak a pandemic

Geneva: The World Health Organisation has declared the global coronavirus crisis is now a pandemic, expressing alarm both about mounting infections and slow government responses.

But the organisation said it was not too late for countries to act.

By reversing course and using the charged word "pandemic" that it had previously shied away from, the UN health agency appeared to want to shock lethargic countries into pulling out all the stops.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has announced that the COVID-19 outbreak is a pandemic.Credit: AP

"We have called every day for countries to take urgent and aggressive action. We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO chief.

"All countries can still change the course of this pandemic if countries detect, test, treat, isolate, trace and mobilise their people in the response," he said.

"We are deeply concerned by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction."

The WHO added that Iran and Italy were the new front lines of the battle against the virus that started in China.

"They're suffering but I guarantee you other countries will be in that situation soon," said Dr Mike Ryan, the WHO's emergencies chief.

The coronavirus, which emerged in China in December, has spread around the world, halting industry, bringing flights to a standstill, closing schools and forcing the postponement of sporting events and concerts. Even the Tokyo Summer Olympics are in question.

A pandemic is an epidemic on a far greater geographic scale that affects a much larger number of people.

For most, the coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for a few, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illnesses, including pneumonia.

More than 121,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 4300 have died, but the vast majority of people recover. According to the WHO, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover.

Before the WHO's comments on Wednesday, local time, Britain and Italy announced multi-billion-dollar war chests to fight the disease and the United States said it was considering new steps.

The Bank of England joined many other countries in cutting interest rates, by half a percentage point, and announced support for bank lending.

In Iran, by far the hardest-hit country in the Middle East, reports emerged that the senior vice president and two other Cabinet ministers had been diagnosed with COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. Iran reported another jump in deaths, by 62 to 354 - behind only China and Italy.

Italy weighed imposing even tighter restrictions on daily life and announced billions in financial relief to cushion economic shocks from the coronavirus, its latest efforts to adjust to the fast-evolving health crisis.

Premier Giuseppe Conte said he would consider requests from Lombardy, Italy's hardest-hit region, to toughen the already extraordinary anti-virus lockdown that was extended nationwide on Tuesday. Lombardy wants to shut down non-essential businesses and reduce public transportation.

These additional measures would be on top of travel and social restrictions that imposed an eerie hush on cities and towns across the country from Tuesday. Police enforced rules that customers stay one metre apart and ensured that businesses closed by 6pm.

Meantime, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said up to 70 per cent of the population was likely to be infected as the virus spreads around the world in the absence of a cure.

"When the virus is out there, the population has no immunity and no therapy exists, then 60 to 70 per cent of the population will be infected," she told a news conference in Berlin.

AP, Reuters