The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that all countries be prepared to combat the novel coronavirus and called on China to ramp up public health measures to contain the spread of the fatal illness, Russia's consumer watchdog Rosporebnadzor reported on Friday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th January, 2020) The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that all countries be prepared to combat the novel coronavirus and called on China to ramp up public health measures to contain the spread of the fatal illness, Russia's consumer watchdog Rosporebnadzor reported on Friday.
Rosporebnadzor published a report on its website of what it said were the main points discussed during an emergency conference call held by the WHO on Thursday, which included public health governing bodies from 16 nations in discussions about the rapidly developing coronavirus situation.
The day prior, presumably following the conference in question, the WHO announced via Twitter that it decided against declaring a global health emergency due to the measure's "restrictive and binary nature."
The consumer watchdog said the conference call included presentations on the latest facts and findings from Chinese health officials, as well as health ministry representatives from Japan and South Korea.
"It is expected that the further export of cases of illness may spread to any country. Thus, all countries must be prepared to implement containment measures, including active surveillance, early detection, isolation and case management," Rospotrebnadzor wrote, citing the WHO's recommendations to the participants of the conference.
The WHO also requested that all nations give it full details of new cases, according to Rospotrebnadzor, and called on China specifically to strengthen nationwide surveillance, case-finding efforts and its direct line of communication with the WHO and other relevant public health institutions.
For its part, the WHO vowed to determine the animal source of the coronavirus, investigate the scope of the human-to-human contagiousness and develop new ways of containing and mitigating the outbreak.
According to the latest data, the virus has killed 26 people and infected more than 880 in China. Confirmed cases of the new coronavirus have also been recorded in the United States, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and Thailand.
Chinese authorities have taken drastic measures to contain the virus' spread, including imposing curfews and restricting travel for up to 44 million people in major cities in central China on the eve of Chinese New Year.
