COVID-19 is a 'controllable pandemic': WHO

Geneva: The new Coronavirus outbreak "is a controllable pandemic" if countries step up measures to tackle it, the head of the World Health Organisation said on Thursday.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus acknowledged on Wednesday that the global outbreak of the new Coronavirus could now be considered a pandemic -- a disease actively spreading

globally.

But he told diplomats in Geneva that describing the outbreak as a pandemic should not mean that countries give up the fight to stop it spreading further.

"This is a controllable pandemic," he said, according to a statement of his remarks.

"We are deeply concerned that some countries are not approaching this threat with the level of political commitment needed to control it. The idea that countries should shift from containment to mitigation is wrong and dangerous," he stressed.

More than 4,500 people have died, according to an AFP tally, while the WHO said some 125,000 cases had been reported from 118 countries and territories.

"To save lives we must reduce transmission," Tedros insisted. "That means finding and isolating as many cases as possible and quarantining their closest contacts," he said, urging states to test every suspected case of COVID-19 in a bid to slow transmission.

Meanwhile, Australia on Thursday put forward a USD 11.4 billion stimulus package meant to stave off a recession due to the impact of the virus outbreak on its

economy.