Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated during Thursday’s briefing in Geneva that the spread of novel coronavirus outside China causes major concern. He noted that in the past two days, more cases have been documented outside of China than within the country.

Axar.az reports citing Russian media.

"But as you know, it’s what is happening in the rest of Europe that is now our greatest concern. Outside China, there are 3,474 cases in 44 countries and 54 deaths," he noted.

"For the past two days, the number of new COVID-19 cases reported in the rest of the world exceeded the number of new cases in China," he noted.

In the past 24 hours, seven countries have reported cases of coronavirus for the first time: Brazil, Georgia, Greece, North Macedonia, Norway, Pakistan and Romania, he added. "My message to each of these countries is: this is your window of opportunity. If you act aggressively now, you can contain this coronavirus. You can prevent people getting sick. You can save lives," the WHO chief stressed. He reminded that the current outbreak has the potential to become a pandemic.