The right time to stop the coronavirus epidemic is "shrinking", warns the director of the WHO this Friday, while the cases outside of China continue to progress.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday that the period to stem the epidemic of the new coronavirus "is shrinking". At the same time, cases outside of China continue to progress. In Israel, a first case has been confirmed and Iran today deplores two new deaths from the virus.

"Our window of fire is narrowing, and that is why we have called on the international community to act quickly, including in terms of funding. This is not what we are seeing," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director of the 'WHO, at a press conference in Geneva. "As we speak, we are still in a phase where it is possible to contain the epidemic" but "with a narrowing window of opportunity," he added.

WHO-led team of experts in Wuhan this Saturday

The epidemic has already infected more than 75,500 people in China and 1,150 in 26 other countries. The new virus has killed more than 2,200 people in China and 8 others around the world, according to the WHO. "Although the total number of cases outside of China remains relatively small, we are concerned about the number of cases with no clear epidemiological link, such as travel history or contact with a confirmed case," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

"We must not look back and regret that we have not taken advantage of the window of opportunity available to us," he said, stressing the importance of taking "proportionate" measures.

The head of the WHO, however, did not want to specify further what should be the measures that countries should take or not, stressing that it was necessary to examine each situation in detail.

Regarding the situation in China, he said that the international team of experts led by WHO has visited Beijing, Sichuan and Guangdong, and will travel to Wuhan, the cradle of the epidemic, tomorrow.