The new coronavirus, which began in China and has spread to 24 other countries, is an epidemic with “many battlefields”, but it can be stopped via the drastic measures being imposed by Beijing and other affected governments, says a World Health Organization (WHO) director. So far, the fast-spreading virus, identified by scientists as 2019-nCoV, has infected more than 24,600 people, about 99% of them in China, with the city of Wuhan the epicentre. Another 176 cases have been reported in 24 other countries and regions. At least 490 people have died in China, one person has died in Hong Kong and one person has died in the Philippines. Sylvie Briand, the UN health agency’s director of global infectious hazard preparedness, recently returned to Geneva from an official visit to Beijing with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, where they met President Xi Jinping and other health officials. Briand describes the current outbreak as an epidemic with “multiple foci” rather ...
