THE director-general of the World Health Organisation has criticised “alarming levels of inaction” as he declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the UN health agency is still advising a containment strategy but countries must “double-down” on their efforts, adding: “We should be more aggressive.”

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In a similar tone, the executive director of the WHO health emergencies programme questioned if action by the European Union and western Europe had been “good enough” following an acceleration in cases.

Ghebreyesus told a briefing in Geneva: “We expect to see the number of cases, the number of deaths and the number of affected countries climb even higher.

“WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we’re deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction. We have therefore made the assessment that Covid-19 can be characterised as a pandemic.”

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He added: “We cannot say this loudly enough or clearly enough or often enough: all countries can still change the course of this pandemic.”

The UK is in the containment phase of Covid-19 as the number of cases rises to 460.

But Ghebreyesus said declaring a pandemic did not mean countries should move away from a containment strategy.

Michael J Ryan, executive director of the WHO health emergencies programme, said countries in the EU and western Europe need to review their control strategies.

It came as deaths soared among Italy’s ageing population, with 12,462 infections and 827 deaths.

In Spain, the number of cases surged past the 2000-mark, while cases in Denmark climbed to more than 300.

In the US, the caseload passed 1000, while Iran announced another increase in cases yesterday to 9000.