Europe Becomes Epicentre of COVID-19 Pandemic - WHO Chief

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Europe has become the epicenter of the global outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), with more cases and deaths that in the rest of the world combined, apart from China, the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said Friday.

"Europe has now become the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic, with more reported cases and deaths than the rest of the world combined, apart from China. More cases are now being reported every day than were reported in China at the height of its epidemic", Tedros said.

WHO chief warned other countries against treating the threat carelessly.

"Any country that looks at the experience of other countries with large epidemics and thinks 'that won’t happen to us' is making a deadly mistake. It can happen to anyone", Tedros said.

The World Health Organization declared the spread of the novel coronavirus a pandemic. The total number of confirmed cases worldwide has surpassed 130,000, with a death toll of over 4,900 and recoveries exceeding 68,000. 

The coronavirus disease was first detected in Wuhan, China's Hubei province, in late December and has since spread worldwide.