WHO warns of pandemic risk after virus peaks in China

Financial markets have gone into a tailspin after grim news of deaths and outbreaks in the Middle East, Europe and Asia, even as the Chinese epicentre appeared to be calming, with the death toll at its lowest for three weeks.

Michael Ryan Executive Director of WHO's Health Emergencies programme, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Director General of the World Health Organization , arrive to attend an update on the situation regarding the COVID-19 in the SHOC room at the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva. -AFP

He added, however, that countries should be “doing everything we can to prepare for a potential pandemic.”South Korea, which has the largest number of cases outside China, reported 60 more infections and one more fatality on Tuesday, raising its death toll to eight and total patients to nearly 900.South Korea’s outbreak has centred around a religious sect in Daegu, the country’s fourth largest city.

Italy, which has reported seven deaths and over 200 cases, has locked down 11 towns, while upcoming football matches in its Serie A and the Europa League will be played behind closed doors. The disease – officially known as COVID-19 – spread to new countries including Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait and Oman.But there were concerns the situation might be worse than officially acknowledged. The semi-official ILNA news agency quoted one local lawmaker in hard-hit Qom – a religious centre – who said 50 people had died there.Even so, authorities have only reported 64 infections in Iran, an unusually small number that would mean an extremely high mortality rate.

In China, 508 new cases were reported, with all but nine at the epicentre in central Hubei province. Although that was up from 409 on Monday it was much lower than new infections being reported just a week ago.WHO’s Tedros said the epidemic peaked in China between January 23 and February 2.

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