After resisting for weeks on making the declaration, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday that the outbreak of the new coronavirus, which has spread to more than 100 countries and infected tens of thousands of people, is a global pandemic.
The virus, which causes the disease COVID-19, has rapidly spread all over Europe, the Middle East, and parts of the United States. WHO officials have shown a reluctance up until this point to make the declaration that the virus is a global pandemic, which generally means an illness that is spread across the world, as some experts have said that calling it a pandemic could further weaken already fragile world markets and cause more stringent travel and trade restrictions.
