Geneva - A World Health Organisation panel
of experts on the new coronavirus met on Thursday to evaluate
whether the outbreak, which has spread from China to several
countries, constitutes an international emergency.
The 16 independent experts in disease control, virology,
epidemiology and vaccine development were holding a second
closed-door meeting at the UN agency's headquarters in Geneva
after not reaching a decision on Wednesday.
Didier Houssin, an adviser to France's national health
security agency, is serving as chair. Chinese health authorities
made a presentation by teleconference and have allowed a WHO
team into the country who are due to report back to the panel.
A news conference was expected later in the day.
Here are some facts about WHO Emergency Committees:
* Director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced on
Monday that the WHO had called an Emergency Committee to assess
the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) that began in
the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of last year.
* Declaration of a Public Health Emergency of International
Concern - known as a "PHEIC" in WHO jargon - is rare.
* The WHO panel's recommendations, after assessing any
evidence of human-to-human transmission and other factors, would
be put to Tedros, who would decide whether to declare an
emergency.
* Only five emergencies have been declared in the past
decade: the H1 virus that caused an influenza pandemic (2009),
West Africa's Ebola outbreak, polio (2014), Zika virus (2016),
and the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of
Congo (2019).
*- The WHO's criteria, laid out in the 2005 International
Health Regulations, define a PHEIC as "an extraordinary event
which is determined to constitute a public health risk to other
states through the international spread of disease and to
potentially require a coordinated international response".
* Such situations are "serious, sudden, unusual or
unexpected", carry cross-border implications and may require
immediate international action, its rules say.
* A declaration would lead to boosting public health
measures, funding and resources to prevent and reduce
international spread.
* It could include recommendations on trade and travel,
including airport screening of passengers, although the WHO
generally aims to avoid disruptive trade restrictions.