The World Health Organization has declared the novel coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern.
This is only the sixth time such an emergency has been declared, with past examples including the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Zika virus.
The WHO reserves the designation for extraordinary events that pose a public health risk by threatening to spread internationally.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the decision after a meeting of its emergency committee, an independent panel of experts, amid mounting evidence of the virus' spread to some 18 countries.
He says the main reason for this declaration is not because of what is happening in China, but because of what is happening in other countries.
He says their greatest concern is the potential for the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems, and which are ill-prepared to deal with it.
Mainland China now has a total of 8,137 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, including 171 deaths.
Source: ABC/Stuff.co
