WHO warns countries against evacuating nationals from China

Geneva, 31/1: Amid scares of Novel Coronavirus outbreak across the world, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has reportedly warned countries against evacuating their nationals from the epicenter of the outbreak in China’s Wuhan city. Chinese state media Xinhua reported on Tuesday that evacuating foreign nationals from Ground Zero is unnecessary.

According to Chinese state media, WHO has said that it was still “waiting for clarification” regarding the situation and asked countries to calm down and not act in a hurry. Notably, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus met Chinese officials, including Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on this day, and it can be presumed that the health organization is waiting for his comments regarding how to contain the infection.

A few experts have stated that there might be merit in WHO’s concerns, as the hasty evacuations might, in fact, end up spreading the virus more. Therefore, the need of the hour is to wait and formulate a strategy to contain the infection as effectively as possible.