The chief of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, arrived in Beijing on Monday. Despite the growing concern on coronavirus, he is expected to meet Chinese public health officials for best coordination of the response to the outbreak. As The Foreign Policy reminds, WHO has not yet declared the SARS-like virus a global emergency.
Amid fears of the virus originated in China, Mr Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived the Asian country to show the global support to the local officials. On Monday, the Chinese public health ministry confirmed the Wuhan virus keep rising: 2,744 cases had been confirmed and the death toll had risen to 80—with all but four in Hubei province.
Inside China, big cities including Wuhan remain on lockdown. despite these efforts to keep a quarantine, some experts have called the effectiveness of that measure into question. The most alarming side of the new virus is no symptoms.
As of today, there is limited information about how easily the SARS-like virus spreads, and it is difficult to recognize.
“The epidemic is now entering a more serious and complex period,” said Ma Xiaowei, the director of China’s National Health Commission. “It looks like it will continue for some time, and the number of cases may increase.”
Wuhan virus: Hong Kong is ready to respond
Meanwhile, Hong Kong takes action to protect its population from Wuhan virus. On Sunday, authorities did ban residents of Hubei province from entering the city. On Monday, there are six confirmed and 77 suspected cases of the new virus in Hong Kong, which has so far refused to block travel from mainland China.
The WHO experts say that the virus has a long incubation period, and hundreds of thousands of people left Wuhan before Lunar New Year. Still, there is not cause for global panic.
Undoubtedly, the coronavirus is very worrying, but so far it lacks the pandemic properties of influenza and has a relatively low mortality rate.
