TIME foreign affairs columnist and editor-at-large Ian Bremmer tweeted to his almost half a million followers on Monday that the World Health Organization had formally declared coronavirus to be a pandemic.
(Twitter Screenshot from @ianbremmer)
The quote from WHO Director Tedros Adhanom in this morning’s media update read, “Now that the coronavirus has a foothold in so many countries, the threat of a pandemic has become very real. But it would be the first pandemic in history that could be controlled.”
“Now that the #coronavirus has a foothold in so many countries, the threat of a pandemic has become very real.
But it would be the first pandemic in history that could be controlled.
The bottom line is: we are not at the mercy of this virus”-@DrTedros #COVID19
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) March 9, 2020
Bremmer soon after deleted the tweet and issued a correction. (RELATED: Here Are The Members Of Congress Self-Quarantining After Meeting Person With Coronavirus At CPAC)
Apologies and clarification: WHO says threat of COVID-19 pandemic is “very real,” but hasn’t formally declared it a pandemic. https://t.co/e9HuuSmsbu
Screenshot below for transparency. pic.twitter.com/RapgbId2jB
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) March 9, 2020
CNN has also begun reporting the coronavirus outbreak as a “pandemic” even though neither the WHO, nor the CDC has yet to declare it as one.
As of today, there have been 546 confirmed cases of coronavirus in America with 22 deaths. Worldwide, there have been 113,751 and 3,990 deaths with China, Italy, and South Korea being the countries hardest hit.