World Health Organization: Coronavirus Disease COVID-19 Now a Pandemic

World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus officially declared COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, a pandemic on Wednesday. COVID-19 had previously been designated as a global health emergency in January after the number of cases of the virus soared in China.

An epidemic occurs when a disease affects many people with the number of cases above what would be normally expected. A pandemic occurs when an epidemic spreads across the world and affects a large number of people.

WHO officials have carefully avoided directly calling the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic until today. They have come close, though, with Ghebreyesus stating on Monday that "the threat of a pandemic has become very real."

Source Fool.com