The coronavirus is a plague to all humanity with its versatility and ability to elude even the top scientists of the world in terms of searching for the cure is now classified as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) just a few minutes ago.
Media briefing on #COVID19 with @DrTedros. #coronavirus https://t.co/aPFXT3ex5y — World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) March 11, 2020
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Why a Pandemic?
A pandemic means a "worldwide spread of a new disease," and that is according to WHO. There is no clear way of saying that an illness is a pandemic but due to the severity of the coronavirus infecting more than 114 nations and more than 118,000 people infected. A pandemic is different from an epidemic; epidemic means that several people contract an illness almost at the same time in an area while, while a pandemic will affect multiple people in an area at a large number at a time and possibly a larger population. In which case, the coronavirus has surely infected a large number of our human society in a short period and doesn't seem to stop anytime soon.
Why Only Now?
The WHO classified the novel coronavirus as just a global public health emergency only last January 30, up until now they have been reluctant to call the outbreak as to what it is in hopes of not inciting global panic to the population. Tedros Adhanom, director-general of the WHO said in a press release just earlier on "Using the word pandemic now does not fit the facts, but it may certainly cause fear," and also said, "What we see are epidemics in different parts of the world affecting different countries in different ways."
What Now?
As countries all over the world are now preparing for the genuine possibility of this breaking out more than it should, pandemic preparedness plans are currently being implemented to the sudden outbreaks of the new coronavirus, and it's a deadly strain. The last time WHO declared a pandemic this magnitude was when the H1N1 outbreak back in 2009, affected over nearly a quarter of the world's population. As the coronavirus is now classified as a pandemic itself, will there be more panic from the society, or is the declaration a critical step to brace ourselves from things to come?
