WHO experts to meet again on Thursday to decide on coronavirus situation

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The World Health Organization’s (WHO) meeting on Wednesday to assess whether or not to declare novel coronavirus outbreak international public health emergency was inconclusive.

India has so far reported no case of the deadly virus infection that broke out in China.

The emergency committee of WHO will meet again on Thursday to deliberate on the matter.

“The situation with new #coronavirus is evolving and complex. For that reason, I have decided to ask the Emergency Committee to meet again tomorrow to continue their discussion, and the Chair, Dr Houssin, has agreed with that request,” tweeted WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. 

He also said that the decision about whether or not to declare a public health emergency of international concern on new coronavirus is one he takes extremely seriously, and one he is only prepared to make with appropriate consideration of all the evidence.

The novel Coronavirus belongs to the same family of coronaviruses as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that killed 800 people globally during a 2002-03 outbreak that also started in China.

The experts from WHO have said that research work is being accelerated to know more about the behaviour of the virus.

“The 2019-nCoV is a new virus. Identification and sequencing were done quickly, but most importantly, the sequence was shared quickly. That’s what allowed Thailand, Japan, Republic of Korea to identify cases quickly,” said Dr Ghebreyesus.

There is already evidence of person-to-person transmission among close contacts such as in families or in health care settings, which the experts claim is not unexpected with a respiratory disease.

However, there is no evidence of onward transmission such as third, fourth generation transmission, confirmed the organisation after the Wednesday meeting.

“There was an excellent discussion during the committee today, but it was also clear that to proceed, we need more information. I have decided to ask the Emergency Committee to meet again tomorrow to continue the discussion,” said Dr Ghebreyesus.

The WHO emergency committee will meet again on Thursday 12.00 hrs Central European Time.