WHO chief: Coronavirus outbreak ‘holds a very grave threat’ for the world

A World Health Organization (WHO) official is warning that while almost all of the confirmed coronavirus cases are in China, the outbreak constitutes a “very grave threat” for the rest of the world, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

“With 99 percent of cases in China, this remains very much an emergency for that country, but one that holds a very grave threat for the rest of the world,” WHO’s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Ghebreyesus made these statements during opening remarks of a meeting between more than 400 researchers and national authorities.

His comments come less than 24 hours after he told reporters at the WHO’s headquarters in Geneva that cases detected outside China “could be the spark that becomes a bigger fire.”