WHO declares global health emergency

The coronavirus outbreak that started in China now meets the criteria to trigger an organized global response, the World Health Organization decided on Thursday. The number of cases of the illness spiked more than tenfold in the past week and was approaching 10,000 on Friday. About 99 percent of those cases are in China, but about two dozen other countries report having patients with the disease. The United States issued its strongest travel warning on Thursday, warning Americans not to go to China because of the outbreak. American Airlines and Delta Air Lines suspended all flights to and from China on Friday.

What does the WHO declaration accomplish? It imposes more disease reporting requirements on countries worldwide and unlocks more money and resources to fight the epidemic. The emergency declaration also might prompt more international travel and trade restrictions. “Our greatest concern is the potential for this virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems which are ill-prepared to deal with it,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. Early estimates put the coronavirus’s mortality rate at 2 percent.

Dig deeper: Read my 2014 report about MERS, another coronavirus that threatened global health.

WORLD has updated this report since its initial posting.