 is holding a meeting today where it could decide whether the spread of the Wuhan virus constitutes "a public health emergency of international concern."){kind=link}
The World Health Organization (WHO) is holding a meeting today where it could decide whether the spread of the Wuhan virus constitutes “a public health emergency of international concern.”
The WHO held a similar meeting yesterday but delayed its decision, due to lack of information.
“The decision about whether or not to declare a public health emergency of international concern is one I take extremely seriously, and one I am only prepared to make with appropriate consideration of all the evidence,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told sources.
“Today, there was an excellent discussion during committee meeting but it was also clear that to proceed, we need more information,” he said.
The WHO defines a public health emergency of international concern as “an extraordinary event” that constitutes a “public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease” and “to potentially require a coordinated international response.” Previous emergencies have included Ebola, Zika and H1N1.