The World Health Organization Declared Corona Virus is Officially a Global Pandemic

Since first being detected within the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, the virus has spread to each continent except Antarctica and infected quite 121,000 people, causing 4,300 deaths.
The WHO has, within the past, defined an epidemic as « the worldwide spread of a replacement disease.

The coronavirus, which causes the illness COVID-19, spread to over 110 countries within three months. On Jan. 30, the WHO announced the coronavirus outbreak was a « public health emergency of international concern » round the time almost 8,000 cases had been confirmed across 18 countries and therefore the price was approaching 200.

The WHO was reticent to call the COVID-19 outbreak an epidemic in an effort to stop panic and suggested containment measures were helping control the spread, but experts suggested the conditions were met in late February as case numbers in Italy, South Korea and Iran began to rapidly climb. On March 9, Tedros announced « the threat of an epidemic has become very real » but reiterated the spread of disease was still in check.

« We cannot say this loudly enough, or clearly enough, or often enough: all countries can still change the course of this pandemic, » Tedros said during the briefing.
The formal declaration of an epidemic doesn’t suggest it is time to panic. Rather, it allows health authorities around the world to start planning for a replacement introduce battling the disease, outlining strategies to mitigate the further spread and help the public understand the signs and symptoms of COVID-19 infection.