Reuters
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The novel coronavirus illness, COVID-2019, is now being spread between countries outside China.
The World Health Organization said on Friday that the window of opportunity to contain the virus is "narrowing."
"This outbreak could go any direction," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "It could even be messy."
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The World Health Organization signaled on Friday that time may be running out to contain the worldwide spread of the novel coronavirus illness, COVID-19.
"The window of opportunity is narrowing to contain the outbreak," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters on Friday, during a press conference in Geneva.
"We still have a chance to contain it. But while doing that, we have to prepare at the same time for any eventualities, because this outbreak could go any direction. It could even be messy."
More than 1,000 people are sick with the pneumonia-like illness outside China, and some new cases have "no link" to China's Hubei province where the virus is thought to have originated in a wet market in Wuhan, the WHO director-general said. It's a first, and "very worrisome" sign, he said, that the virus may be readying to spread broadly and independently outside the country where it originated in December.
At least 12 people have died so far from the coronavirus outside of China. The first case of COVID-19 was just reported in Lebanon, the 30th country to be infected. But the virus didn't travel from China's Wuhan province to get there, the illness was spread by a traveler coming to the country on a flight from Iran, whose illness was spotted during an airport screening when their plane landed.
"Iran in the past two days has reported 18 cases and ... four deaths," Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "Not only that, there is a case which is linked to Iran now in Lebanon … and these dots are actually very concerning."
Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images
A medical professional at a preliminary testing facility at the National Medical Center in Seoul, South Korea on February 21, 2020.
Meanwhile, in South Korea, more than 200 people have caught the COVID-19 bug, the largest number of cases outside China, excluding the Diamond Princess cruise ship where more than 620 travelers caught the bug during a bungled quarantine.Many of the sick in South Korea have ties to a Korean megachurch, as the Wall Street Journal reported. It's a stinging reminder that COVID-19 is easily spread through close contact among people, when virus droplets are released through coughing and sneezing.
Health officials still stress that proper, vigorous, 20-second hand washings, along with strict hygiene measures, like avoiding touching your face with your hands, and covering your cough, are some of the best ways to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.
It's been three weeks now since the WHO deemed the coronavirus outbreak a global health emergency, to better coordinate and prepare international responses to the new virus.
"We call on all countries to continue their commitment for containment measures, while preparing for community transmission," Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "If it occurs, we must not look back and regret that we failed to take advantage of the window of opportunity that we have now."
The total number of COVID-19 cases and deaths now far exceeds that of the SARS outbreak in 2002 and 2003, when 774 people died and more than 8,000 were infected. At least 2,250 people have been killed by the novel coronavirus, and 76,000 have been infected.
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