THE United States and Japan flew nationals out of China’s coronavirus epicentre on Wednesday, as the number of deaths leapt to 133 and the World Health Organization said there was “deeply concerning” evidence of person-to-person transmission in other countries.
The WHO said its Emergency Committee would reconvene today to decide whether the spread of the new virus from China now constitutes a global emergency.
“In the last few days the progress of the virus especially in some countries, especially human-to-human transmission, worries us,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference in Geneva, naming Germany, Vietnam and Japan.
Beijing’s plans to slay what its leader called the “devil” coronavirus may have won the trust of the WHO, but confirmation of another 1,459 cases – taking the total to 5,974 in China – only fuelled global public alarm.
The death toll from the flu-like virus also rose by 27 to 133.
Almost all have been in the central province of Hubei, the capital of which is Wuhan, where the virus emerged last month in a live wild animal market.
The situation remained “grim and complex”, Chinese President Xi Jinping acknowledged. U.S. President Donald Trump said he had spoken to Xi and his administration was working closely with China on containing the outbreak.
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Some major airlines suspended flights to China, and a senior economist predicted a major impact on growth.
The WHO’s panel of 16 independent experts twice last week declined to declare an international emergency, but will re-evaluate the situation on Thursday.
“We are at an important juncture in this event. We believe these chains of transmission can still be interrupted,” said Mike Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme.
Ryan also praised China’s response, saying: “They are taking extraordinary measures in the face of what is an extraordinary challenge.”
In many Chinese cities, streets were largely deserted. Tourist attractions were closed, while Starbucks coffee shops required people to have their temperatures taken and to wear masks.
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