Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director general of the World Health Organization has described the the fight against Covid-19 as being in "uncharted territory".
Speaking at a news conference in the past hour he said " we have never seen before a respiratory pathogen capable of community transmission, but which can be contained with the right measures"
The major points made by Dr Tedros were:
- In the last 24 hours there were almost 9 times more coronavirus cases reported outside China than inside
- Of the 62 countries who have reported coronavirus cases, 38 have reported 10 or fewer cases.
- The epidemics in South Korea, Italy, Iran and Japan are of greatest concern.
- A WHO mission has arrived in Iran to deliver supplies and help to the government.
- There are indications surveillance measures are working in South Korea and the epidemic can still be contained there
In other developments, the EU's disease prevention agency has raised the bloc's risk level from moderate to high.
Here, Health officials here are still waiting on the results of tests on two possible cases of Covid-19.
The Ministry of Health expects the results will released later today.
So far, just one person has tested positive for the Covid-19 coronavirus in New Zealand.
