WHO urges global unity in fight against coronavirus outbreak

With 18 deaths in China, several countries introduce screening for arriving passengers

The World Health Organization has called on the global community to work together to fight the new coronavirus that is causing an epidemic of viral pneumonia and deaths in China, but stopped short of declaring it a public health emergency of international concern.

After the second day of meetings of the emergency committee, WHO's director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Thursday that nobody should assume there was no risk that it would become a dangerous global epidemic.