The top doctor at the World Health Organization declared Europe the new “epicenter” of the novel coronavirus as Italy and other nations struggle to combat the deadly disease.
This move came the day after multiple members of the White House’s Coronavirus Task Force said “Europe is the new China.”
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, during an appearance at a new conference addressing the coronavirus on Friday, said the disease has spread rapidly and widely inside the European Union.
“More than 132,000 cases of COVID-19 have now been reported to WHO from 123 countries and territories,” Tedros said. “Five thousand people have lost their lives — a tragic milestone. Europe has now become the epicenter of the pandemic, with more reported cases and deaths than the rest of the world combined apart from China.”
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More than 3,000 people have died in China, but cases in Europe, specifically in Italy, have jumped dramatically in the last week alone. Italy reported more than 1,000 deaths on Thursday, and a top health agency in the country told healthcare providers to prioritize the young for treatment, a measure generally reserved for wartime.
“More cases are now being reported every day than were reported in China at the highest of its epidemic — at the height of its epidemic,” Tedros added.
On Wednesday, WHO declared the virus a pandemic, citing the spread of the disease and the number of countries affected.
Surgeon General Jerome Adams defended the travel restrictions Trump placed on Europe this week.
“The President told the country that we’re going to have a 30-day restriction on foreign visitors from most of Europe — this does not apply to U.S. citizens,” Adams told reporters on Thursday. “Why are we doing that? Well, the epicenter of the coronavirus used to be in China. Ninety-eight percent of cases used to come from China. Now, Europe is the new China. And, very specifically, Italy is the new China.”
He also said the coronavirus spread in at least 30 states was connected to cases that could be traced back to Europe.
“That is why the president took bold and aggressive action — really unprecedented action,” he said, adding that Americans returning from Europe would be screened and asked to self-quarantine.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield told members of Congress on Thursday that “within the world now, over 70% of the new cases are linked to Europe — and in the United States, I think it was now 30 states or more that were linked to Europe.” The doctor echoed that “Europe is the new China.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar declared a public health emergency for the entire U.S. related to the coronavirus on Jan. 31. The same day, Azar announced travel restrictions related to China. At the end of February, Trump implemented restrictions on travel to and from Iran.
Johns Hopkins University lists more than 11,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in Iran.
Trump is expected to declare a national emergency on Friday afternoon related to the coronavirus’s spread in the U.S.
