China coronavirus: World Health Organisation delays declaring virus’ spread an international emergency
- WHO’s emergency committee is to reconvene on Thursday to decide whether a ‘public health emergency of international concern’ is needed to fight deadly illness
- The committee needs more information from China about a travel ban in Wuhan and other details about how patients were infected
The World Health Organisation said on Wednesday that it will delay deciding whether to label the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus an international emergency, as the United Nations agency seeks more information from China.
An emergency committee of 21 members and advisers formulated by the WHO will reconvene in Geneva, Switzerland, on Thursday to decide whether a “public health emergency of international concern” (PHEIC) will be necessary to fight the deadly illness.
“The decision about whether or not to declare a public health emergency of international concern is one I take extremely seriously and one I am only prepared to make with appropriate consideration of all of the evidence,” WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva.
“Our team is on the ground in China as we speak, working with local experts and officials to investigate the outbreak and get more information.”
The committee, which includes Dr Malik Peiris, chair of virology at the University of Hong Kong, and Wannian Liang, head of the China National Health Commission’s expert panel, was split on Wednesday over whether to announce a PHEIC, said Didier Houssin, the committee’s chairman.