MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th March, 2020) The leadership of the Council of Europe has decided to cancel the spring session of PACE in Strasbourg, which was scheduled from April 20-24, due to the outbreak of the coronavirus in Europe, Leonid Slutsky, head of the Russian lower house international affairs committee, said Friday.
"The PACE spring session, which was scheduled to be held in Strasbourg from April 20 to 24, has been canceled due to the outbreak of coronavirus in European countries. The decision has been made at the leadership level of the Council of Europe. Safety measures are above all," Slutsky told reporters.
On March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said earlier in the day that Europe "has now become the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, with more reported cases and deaths than the rest of the world combined, apart from China."
As of Friday, over 137,000 people in 117 countries have been infected worldwide, about half of them have recovered, but more than 5,000 have died, according to data provided by Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
