The World Health Organization (WHO) emergency committee on coronavirus met in Geneva yesterday. WHO has decided to delay its decision on whether to declare the outbreak a global health emergency and asked an expert committee to continue meeting for a second day today.
“There was an excellent discussion during the committee today, but it was also clear that to proceed, we need more information,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
Therefore, he asked the Emergency Committee to meet again to continue their discussion, and the Chair, Dir. Houssin, agreed with that request.
WHO team in China is working with local experts and officials to investigate the outbreak.
The agency defines a global emergency as an “extraordinary event” that constitutes a risk to other countries and requires a coordinated international response.
The WHO was first notified of the Wuhan virus on December 31. The infection is thought to have originated in a seafood market that also sold illegal wildlife meat, which has now been closed and sealed off.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera says China is keen to show the WHO that it has the outbreak under control.
Xinhua says Wuhan's tourism and culture department cancelled all group tours until February 8.
Recall, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection of Tajikistan has sent letters to the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Tourism Development Committee with solicitation to restrict Tajik nationals’ tourist and business travels to China until the situation connected with coronavirus in that country stabilizes.
