Coronavirus is still an emergency for China, says WHO chief

MUNICH – The coronavirus outbreak is still an emergency for China and it is impossible to tell where the epidemic will spread, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organisation, said on Saturday (Feb 15).

Tedros told the Munich Security Conference in Germany that he was encouraged by actions China had taken to slow the spread of virus but was still concerned about the increasing number of cases.

French officials said on Saturday that an elderly Chinese tourist infected with the coronavirus had died in France, becoming the first fatality in Europe and the fourth outside mainland China from an epidemic that has rattled the world.

Beijing’s latest figures on Saturday showed 66,492 cases and 1,523 deaths, mostly in Hubei. Outside mainland China, there have been about 500 cases in some two dozen countries and territories, with four deaths – in Japan, Chinese-ruled Hong Kong, the Philippines and France.