Experts say WHO’s time has come to declare coronavirus outbreak world health emergency

World Health Organisation committee will meet on Thursday for third time in a week to decide threat posed by outbreak

Former WHO adviser on communicable diseases says there is ‘imminent risk’ of international spread of virus

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A couple walk near the deserted Forbidden City in Beijing this week. The coronavirus is rapidly spreading. Photo: AFP

Published: 4:34pm, 30 Jan 2020Updated: 7:00pm, 15 Feb 2020

The World Health Organisation meets in Geneva on Thursday to decide whether to formalise what a growing number of international health experts say is already a reality: the coronavirus outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan is now a health threat of global proportions.

Since the first public alert was raised about the virus about a month ago, it has infected 7,700 people in China and more than 100 people in other countries around the world. Of the cases abroad, a handful are among people who had not recently travelled to China, escalating concerns about the contagion's ability to spread.

WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus flew to Beijing on Monday and met China’s President Xi Jinping on Tuesday to discuss the outbreak and the measures China has taken. The measures are unprecedented. Beijing has ordered the lockdown of Wuhan and most cities across Hubei province, which contains 60 million people.

That is almost equivalent to the population of Britain and represents the largest response to a health crisis in human history.

Tedros returned to Geneva and will meet 16 independent experts on the WHO’s emergency committee who present their recommendations to the director general in an hours-long meeting stretching into Thursday evening.

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