The World Health Organization (WHO) is to convene its expert committee again on Thursday to discuss whether to declare a global health emergency over the coronavirus outbreak.
The disease has killed more than 170 people and infected 6,000 more since it was first identified in the central Chinese city of Wuhan on December 31.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who has just returned from China, said it was necessary to call another meeting — the third in a week — because of the virus’ spread beyond China.
The death toll of the coronavirus has risen to 170 and with a confirmed case in Tibet, the virus has now spread to every region in mainland China.
Chinese health authorities have said there were 7,711 confirmed cases in the country as of 29 January.
Infections have also spread to at least 16 other countries.
“In the last few days the progress of the virus, especially in some countries, especially human-to-human transmission, worries us,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday, pointing to Germany, Vietnam and Japan.
“Although the numbers outside China are still relatively small, they hold the potential for a much larger outbreak.”
The 16 members of the WHO’s expert committee decided last week that the epidemic did not yet qualify as a global emergency, a label reserved only for the worst outbreaks, concluding instead that more information was needed.
The designation has only been applied five times by the Geneva-based UN health agency, including for Ebola and swine flu.
Britons who are due to be flown back to the UK from the Chinese city of Wuhan and province of Hubei over coronavirus fears will be quarantined for two weeks.
About 200 British nationals are expected to board a chartered flight from Wuhan – the epicentre of the outbreak.
The plane had been set to take off on Thursday but the Foreign Office has indicated that will now not happen as several countries’ flights have been unable to take off.
It is understood the UK passengers will have to sign up to a 14-day period of isolation and whatever treatment is recommended by experts.
