Coronavirus outbreak is 'public health emergency of international concern,' WHO declares

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"The only way we will defeat this outbreak is for all countries to work together."

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The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that the new coronavirus outbreak is a public health emergency of international concern, officials announced today (Jan. 30).

The news comes as the case count and death toll from the virus have soared in recent days. As of Thursday (Jan. 30), there were 7,736 cases and 170 deaths in China, as well as 98 cases in 18 other countries, the WHO said.

"The only way we will defeat this outbreak is for all countries to work together in a spirit of solidarity and cooperation," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of WHO, said in a news conference Thursday. "We are all in this together."

Today's announcement is a reversal of WHO's decision last week not to declare a public health emergency of international concern.

The main reason for the declaration is concern that the virus could spread to countries with weaker health systems. "We don't know what sort of damage the virus could do if it were to spread in a country with a weaker health system," Ghebreyesus said.

As for the outbreak in China itself, Ghebreyesus emphasized that "WHO continues to have the confidence in China's capacity to control the outbreak" there.

Originally published on Live Science. 

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Rachael Rettner
Rachael Rettner
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Rachael is a Live Science contributor, and was a former channel editor and senior writer for Live Science between 2010 and 2022. She has a master's degree in journalism from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program. She also holds a B.S. in molecular biology and an M.S. in biology from the University of California, San Diego. Her work has appeared in Scienceline, The Washington Post and Scientific American.