Behind The WHO’s Decision to Declare Coronavirus a Pandemic

A pandemic is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “the worldwide spread of a new disease,” and on Wednesday, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. COVID-19 has spread to more than 100 countries worldwide. This virus has sickened more than 121,000 people and killed over 4,300 people.

According to Business Insider, the determination is “based on the geographic spread of a disease, the severity of illnesses it causes, and its effects on society.”

Business Insider reported that the organization said it was deeply concerned by the “alarming levels of inaction” about the coronavirus outbreak. The organization described the term “pandemic” as both a “characterization” and a “call to action” – not an excuse to give up.

WHO's director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said: “If countries detect, test, treat, isolate, trace, and mobilize their people in their response, those with a handful of cases can prevent those cases from becoming clusters and those clusters from becoming community transmissions.”

Business Insider reported that the WHO had been hesitant to declare the outbreak as a pandemic in recent weeks because of fear “that the moniker would lead to widespread panic and saying it was perhaps not yet warranted.”

“If this was an influenza epidemic, we would have expected to see widespread community transmission across the globe by now, and efforts to slow it down or contain it would not be feasible,” Tedros said last week. “But containment of COVID-19 is feasible and must remain the top priority for all countries.”