Rome: Expressing alarm both about mounting infections and slow government responses, the World Health Organization on Wednesday declared that the global coronavirus crisis is now a pandemic but also said it's not too late for countries to act.
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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.
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“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 are 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.
Iran's senior vice president contracts virus
Iran's vice president Eshaq Jahangiri has contracted the new coronavirus, a semi-official news agency reported on Wednesday, as the death toll in the Islamic republic from the outbreak rose by 62 to 354.
The report by the Fars news agency, believed to be close to Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, comes as President Hassan Rouhani took control of the country's much-criticized response to the virus and the COVID-19 illness it causes. Authorities announced that there were some 9,000 confirmed cases of the virus across Iran.
Jahangiri has not been seen in pictures of recent top-level meetings, leading to days of speculation about his health prior to the Fars story.
Authorities announced that there were some 9,000 confirmed cases of the virus across Iran.
Virus upends life in Italy
Italy weighed imposing even tighter restrictions on daily life and announced billions in financial relief Wednesday to cushion economic shocks from the coronavirus, its latest efforts to adjust to the fast-evolving health crisis that silenced the usually bustling heart of the Catholic faith, St. Peter’s Square.
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 Tuesday. Lombardy wants to shut down nonessential businesses and reduce public transportation.
With inputs from AP
