WHO to send mission to coronavirus-hit China
- World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu says team leader will leave on Monday or Tuesday and rest of experts will follow
- Top health emergency expert says there has been stabilisation in number of new cases reported from Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak
The head of the World Health Organisation says it received a response from China on Saturday on the dispatch of a WHO-led international mission to the country, where a new virus has emerged.
Director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the team leader would leave on Monday or Tuesday and the rest of the experts would follow. Asked whether members of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention would be part of the team, he replied, “We hope so.”
Tedros would not immediately name the leader or the rest of the team, or give further details, saying that WHO would “publicise everything as soon as we’re ready”.
More than 720 people in mainland China have died from the outbreak. Experts say the death toll is looking likely to pass the 813 deaths recorded globally during the 2002-2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars).
Dr Mike Ryan, WHO’s top emergency expert, said there had been a stabilisation in the number of new cases reported from Hubei province, the epicentre of the virus, over the past four days.