国际英语资讯:WHO characterizes COVID-19 outbreak as pandemic, urging action_时事

国际英语资讯:WHO characterizes COVID-19 outbreak as pandemic, urging action

The total number of confirmed cases in Italy has surged past 12,000 as of Wednesday, despite its drastic measure of locking down the entire country.

Answering a question from Xinhua during Wednesday's conference, Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO's health emergencies program, said pandemic "is a characterization or description of the situation." He denied that such a move would trigger anything other than more aggressive and intensive action.

The WHO has made many internal and external consultations in assessing the use of the word "pandemic" as a characterization of COVID-19, he added, warning against the danger of using the word to make people give up rather than act.

Tedros said describing the COVID-19 situation as a pandemic does not change the WHO's assessment of the threat posed by the novel coronavirus, nor does it change what the WHO is doing and countries should do.

He called on all countries to strike a fine balance between protecting health, minimizing economic and social disruption, and respecting human rights in the midst of the pandemic.

The Iranian government has begun setting up quarantine centers and treatment facilities as the caseload in the country has reached 9,000 by Wednesday.

To shore up its economy, the British government on Wednesday pledged 30 billion pounds (39 billion U.S. dollars) in a stimulus plan. Italy also decided to allocate 25 billion euros (28.3 billion dollars) to deal with the COVID-19 emergency in the country.