No Evidence Of Coronavirus Mutation Found, Virus 'Stable' - WHO Official

The new strain of the deadly coronavirus, which has already spread from China to more than 20 countries, has not mutated and so far has not constituted a pandemic, Infectious Hazards Management Department Director at the World Health Organization (WHO) Sylvie Briand said during a press conference in Geneva on Tuesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th February, 2020) The new strain of the deadly coronavirus, which has already spread from China to more than 20 countries, has not mutated and so far has not constituted a pandemic, Infectious Hazards Management Department Director at the World Health Organization (WHO) Sylvie Briand said during a press conference in Geneva on Tuesday.

"Currently we are not in a pandemic. We are at the phase where it's an epidemic with multiple foci and we will try to extinguish each of the foci," Briand told reporters.

The official added that WHO had no evidence that the coronavirus had mutated, saying that "it is quite a stable virus."

According to Briand, the organization was working closely with different countries on the repatriation of people from virus-stricken China.

The virus, which may cause a severe respiratory illness, has spilled over to two dozen countries, sickening over 20,000 people and killing more than 400 worldwide, most of them in China. The WHO declared a global health emergency in January.