WHO cautions that transmission of the new coronavirus outside of China could increase

The WHO cautioned over the weekend that even though the transmission of new coronavirus cases from China may appear to be slowing down, it could be because of a lag and that count may still spike. “[T]here is a window of opportunity that we should use to the maximum in order to have a better outcome, and further decrease the progress and stop it,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters. The outbreak has now infected more than 40,600 people and killed 910 individuals. The latest figures mean that the death toll from the new virus has surpassed that from SARS, also caused by a coronavirus. While public health officials have looked to that outbreak for lessons for the current emergency, what seems unchanged is the modest level of interest — and funding — to combat coronaviruses, which could complicate the response to this and future such events.