WHO emergency committee to continue discussing novel coronavirus on Thursday

WHO emergency committee to continue discussing novel coronavirus on Thursday
# 23 January 2020 11:23 (UTC +04:00)

The Emergency Committee of the World Health Organization (WHO) will continue discussing the novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV and the possibility of declaring a public health emergency over its outbreak in China on Thursday, the organization’s director general said, APA reports citing TASS.

"There was an excellent discussion during the committee today, but it was also clear that to proceed, we need more information," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters after the Emergency Committee’s meeting that ended late on Wednesday. "For that reason, I have decided to ask the Emergency Committee to meet again tomorrow to continue their discussion, and the Chair, Dr Houssin, has agreed with that request."

He described the current situation with 2019-nCoV as "evolving and complex."

The WHO head also spoke highly of the Chinese government’s response to the outbreak and their cooperation with the global body.

"Our team in China working with local experts and officials to investigate the outbreak," he said. "We will have much more to say tomorrow."

During the committee’s meeting, representatives of China, as well as Thailand, South Korea and Japan - the countries where sporadic cases of the disease have been registered - delivered their reports.

On December 31, 2019, the Chinese authorities informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of earlier unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan in central China. On January 7, Chinese specialists denoted the virus causing the disease as coronavirus 2019-nCoV. All cases of the suspected pneumonia were lab tested. As a result, infecting agents of such diseases as flu, bird flu, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) were excluded from the list of possible pathogens.

So far, the Chinese authorities confirmed 473 cases of the novel coronavirus, resulting in 17 deaths.

The World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines reveal that contracting the coronavirus is accompanied by the following symptoms - cold, cough, sore throat and chest congestion. Patients can also experience headaches and fever that can last up to a few days. People with low immune system, children and seniors are the high-risk group. They exhibit symptoms similar to those of pneumonia and bronchitis.

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THE OPERATION IS BEING PERFORMED