Coronavirus: COVID-19 outbreak declared pandemic by WHO #COVID19 #coronavirus #UK #emergency #quarantine #pandemic #WHO
The coronavirus outbreak has now been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
According to the WHO website, a pandemic is defined as the worldwide spread of a new disease.
It can also refer to a disease which is prevalent over a whole country.
In contrast to a pandemic, an epidemic refers to the spread of illness in a “community or region…clearly in excess of normal expectancy”.
According to a 2017 report, the WHO has four phases to describe the outbreak of a pandemic.
Interpandemic phase – this is the period between pandemics
Alert phase – this is when a new virus has been identified and risk assessments are carried out at local, national and global levels
Pandemic phase – this is the period of global spread of the virus. Some experts say this is obviously happening with coronavirus.
Transition phase – this is when the global risk reduces and countries begin to recover
Courtesy of Sky News
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