With the number of coronavirus cases increasing rapidly around the world, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday announced that the virus outbreak can now be characterised as a pandemic.
A pandemic is a worldwide spread of a disease or an infection. It is associated with the geographic spread of the infection and not its characteristic changes.
The WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the organisation was “deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction.”
On Wednesday, hours before announcing that coronavirus could be called a pandemic, WHO also released an animated video on “steps to protect yourself and others from Covid-19.”
Watch the video here:
In the 30-second-long animated video, WHO explained 7 key steps to follow to prevent the spread of the virus.
The video was posted on Twitter with the caption, “These are 7 simple steps to protect yourself and others from #COVID19.”
The key points in the video were washing hands frequently, avoid touching eyes, mouth and nose, covering mouth while coughing with a tissue or elbow, avoiding crowded places, staying at home when feeling unwell, seeking medical care on call first and staying aware of latest information shared by WHO.
After the video was shared, it immediately went viral and garnered over 661.5k views. In fact, Twitterati started retweeting the message to let others know about the preventive measures.
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In India, the total number of confirmed cases climbed to 73 on Thursday. The government “strongly advised” Indian nationals to avoid all non-essential travel abroad. In fact, all visas have been suspended, except a few categories such as diplomatic and employment, till April 15.
