<![CDATA[China coronavirus: World Health Organisation not declaring virus' spread a global emergency]>
The World Health Organisation said on Thursday that the deadly Wuhan coronavirus did not constitute an international public health emergency, despite the climbing death toll, which now stands at 18.
"This is an emergency in China," WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a press conference in Geneva. "But it has not yet become a global health emergency. It may yet become one."
Ghebreyesus said there was "no evidence" of human-to-human transmission outside China, "but that doesn't mean it won't happen".
The United Nations agency's ruling came on the same day that the Chinese government placed eight cities in central China's Hubei province, including its capital Wuhan, under effective lockdown to stop the virus from spreading, blocking off all outward public transport. Some 650 cases worldwide have been reported so far.
Also on Thursday, Chinese authorities reported the first fatality outside Hubei, after an 80-year-old in northern China's Hebei province who died on Wednesday was later confirmed to have been infected by the illness.
Didier Houssin, chair of the WHO emergency committee, said it was "too soon" to label the outbreak a "public health emergency of international concern" " or PHEIC " because of the limited number of cases outside China.
The panel, which split 50-50 over whether to go ahead with the determination, would reconvene at any time " even within the coming days " should it be deemed necessary to revisit its decision, Houssin said. Since the virus first came to the attention of Wuhan's health authorities late last year, the coronavirus has spread to multiple major cities across China, several East and Southeast Asian countries, and even the US west coast.
The US State Department on Thursday warned China-bound travellers to exercise "increased caution", recommending they avoid all animals, alive or dead, stay away from animal markets and avoid contact with sick people in the country.
Vietnam and Singapore reported their first cases of the virus on Thursday, bringing the global total to 647.
At least 628 cases are in China, according to official figures, mostly concentrated in Wuhan.
Known as 2019-nCoV, the virus is thought to have been first contracted by humans at a seafood and meat market in the city, a major transport hub connected to much of China through high-speed rail networks and flight routes.
Compounding the crisis, the outbreak has come with much of the country travelling to visit family during the Lunar New Year holiday, which begins this week.
Fatality rates for 2019-nCoV are currently lower than those for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers), two other forms of coronavirus that caused hundreds of deaths during outbreaks in the early 2000s and mid-2010s, respectively.
Chinese health authorities said on Thursday that the elderly were most susceptible to the Wuhan virus, after it emerged that half of those who died were over 80 years old. Most had pre-existing conditions.
Late on Thursday, the ministry of finance announced it was releasing 1 billion yuan (US$144.2 million) of emergency funds to "support Hubei province in carrying out its work to prevent and control the epidemic".
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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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