Illustrative photo (Source: AFP/VNA)

The WHO will convene a meeting of the committee to advise on declaring the outbreak a global health emergency, the WHO’s highest level of alert, in the next few weeks, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual news conference. He said he is concerned by the scale and spread of the virus around the world. 80% of the cases are in Europe. 

At its previous meeting on June 27, the committee decided that the outbreak was not yet a health emergency. The WHO has only applied the emergency designation six times, including the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.