CHINA AGAIN!!!: WHO Declares New COVID Outbreak in China Global Health Emergency
Israel Adeleke
Barely five years after it experienced the dreaded COVID-19 outbreak, that led to a global pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced another outbreak of a new coronavirus in China, a global health emergency,with the Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV) spreading rapidly, causing flu-like and COVID-19-like symptoms.
OPEN TELEVISION NAIJA (OTN) News recalls that sometimes around 2019/2020 there was a severe coronavirus outbreak, (COVID-19) which claimed millions of lives across the world and ended up putting countries on lockdown mode..
COVID-19 was first reported in Wuhan, China, in 2019, and subsequently spread globally to become the fifth documented pandemic since the 1918 flu pandemic.
However, the World Health Organization, WHO, has declared another outbreak of a new coronavirus in China, a global health emergency, making it the second time this deadliest virus is emerging from the country.
OTN News further reports that the WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus made the announcement of the second outbreak at a press conference in Geneva.
According to him “The main reason for this declaration is not because of what is happening in China, but because of what is happening in other countries,”
“Our greatest concern is the potential for the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems and which are ill-prepared to deal with it. Let me be clear, this declaration is not a vote of no confidence in China. On the contrary, WHO continues to have confidence in China’s capacity to control the outbreak.” he said.
Speaking further, Tedros outlined recommendations made by the emergency committee to control the outbreak, including accelerating the development of vaccines and drugs and combatting the spread of misinformation.
OTN News gathered that the WHO’s emergency committee on the epidemic had reportedly met late last afternoon and recommended designating the outbreak a 'Public Health Emergency of International Concern, PHEIC.'
The chair of the emergency committee, Didier Houssin, while speaking at the press conference, said that the decision had been “almost unanimous.”
OTN News however, observes that this is the sixth time WHO has used that label, Public Health Emergency of International Concern, PHEIC. since the designation was introduced 15 years ago.
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