The new Coronavirus [COVID-19] outbreak can now be characterised as a pandemic, the head of the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday. "COVID-19 can be characterised as a pandemic," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said reporters in Geneva. "We have never before seen a pandemic sparked by a Coronavirus."'

According to BBC, Dr Tedros said the number of cases outside China had increased 13-fold over the past two weeks. He said he was 'deeply concerned' by 'alarming levels of inaction' over the virus. However, he said that calling the outbreak a pandemic did not mean the WHO was changing its advice about what countries should do.