It's official: the coronavirus crisis is now considered a pandemic. This was stated, Wednesday, March 11, the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
"We are extremely concerned both by the alarming level and the severity of the spread and by the level of inaction. We therefore decided to consider that the Covid-19 could be described as pandemic," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during 'a press conference.
The number of new cases outside China has increased 13-fold in the past two weeks, he said.
International mobilization to revive the economy
Confronted by fears of a major economic crisis, the world's major financiers announced often massive aid, Germany for example saying for the first time ready to renounce the sacrosanct rule of zero budget deficit, often criticized abroad.
The list is impressive: investment fund of 25 billion euros mentioned by the European Commission, envelope of the same amount announced Wednesday in Italy, plan of 30 billion pounds made public in the United Kingdom - where the central bank has also rates cut sharply - next presentation to the United States of a support program on which the government is working "full time", billions of Canadian dollars promised by Ottawa.
On the Paris side, the French government is accelerating preparations for a peak of the pandemic, expected in the "coming weeks", and further strengthens the protection of the elderly - at the risk of isolating them. Faced with this crisis, which he described as "exceptional", Emmanuel Macron will make a televised statement Thursday evening at 8 pm.
With AFP and Reuters
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