by Alicja Grzadkowska 28 Feb 2020
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Australia
has activated emergency measures to tackle the coronavirus outbreak, which is
threatening to evolve into a pandemic. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that
Australia, which currently has 23 cases of the virus, was operating on the
basis of a pandemic, according to Reuters. As a result, hospitals are
under orders to ensure that they have enough medical supplies, personal
protective equipment and staff to address cases of the virus.
“There is
every indication that the world will soon enter a pandemic phase of the
coronavirus,” Morrison said at a news conference in Canberra. “As a result, we
have agreed today and initiated the ... coronavirus emergency response plan.”
Australia
isn’t the only country ramping up measures to battle the threat of the virus’s
ongoing spread. Taiwan raised its epidemic response level to its highest and US
President Donald Trump has installed vice president Mike Pence at the head of
America’s response to the crisis. These moves come as the number of infections
outside China, the centre of the outbreak, have now surpassed those appearing
inside the country. In fact, the epidemic is likely peaking in China, top
government health adviser Zhong Nanshan told a news conference, who said that
he believed China would be successful in containing the virus by late April.
Denmark,
Estonia, and Brazil have now joined the list of countries with residents who have
fallen sick with coronavirus. Italy, Spain, and Iran are managing their own
severe outbreaks of the virus. Health authorities in the US have also reported
the first potential case of community transmission involving an individual who
had no relevant travel history or exposure to another known patient.
The
coronavirus has infected more than 80,000 people, according to the World Health
Organisation (WHO), and has taken the lives of nearly 2,800, the majority of
which have been in China.
Global
financial impacts have meanwhile taken a major hit, sinking for almost a week straight
and losing $3.6 trillion in value. Many airlines are cancelling flights as
countries ban visitors from zones of outbreak and people with tickets purchased
already delay their travel plans.
The world
could still be a long way off from finding a cure for the virus. A vaccine for
the coronavirus could take up to 18 months to develop, according to Reuters.
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