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Coronavirus Has Not Reached Pandemic Status, Says WHO

VOA News

   Despite its increasing detection in numerous countries, the World
   Health Organization says the outbreak of the new coronavirus has not
   yet reached the level of a pandemic.

   Dr. Sylvie Briand, WHO's director of epidemic and pandemic diseases,
   told reporters in Geneva Tuesday the outbreak is at the phase "where it
   is an epidemic with multiple foci."

   As of Tuesday, at least 425 people, the majority in mainland China,
   have died from the coronavirus since it was first detected in December
   in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, with the total number of
   confirmed infections exceeding 20,000. There are about 150 confirmed
   cases in 23 other countries, including one death in the Philippines --
   the first outside of China.

   The epidemic has also been detected on the high seas. More than 3,000
   passengers and crew aboard a cruise ship anchored off the Japanese port
   of Yokohama were quarantined after a passenger tested positive for the
   virus. Cruise operator Carnival Japan says the passenger was an
   80-year-old man who disembarked from the Diamond Princess on January 25
   after it docked in Hong Kong. The ship's departure has been delayed as
   health workers conduct tests on all 2,666 passengers and 1,045 crew
   members.

   Meanwhile, medical workers in Hong Kong staged a second consecutive day
   of strikes Tuesday as the Chinese territory reported its first death
   from the coronavirus.

   Hong Kong shut down nearly all land and sea border crossings with the
   mainland at midnight local time after more than 2,000 medical workers
   walked off the job Monday demanding that all border crossings be closed
   completely. Hong Kong was hit hard by severe acute respiratory syndrome
   (SARS) in 2002-03.

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