The World Health Organization(WHO) has declared COVID-19 a pandemic.

At a briefing in Geneva on Wednesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said pandemic isn't a word used lightly as it could cause unreasonable fear or give the mistaken impression that the fight is over, causing unnecessary pain and death. He said, however, that his organization judged that the disease now fit the description.

He stressed that describing COVID-19 as a pandemic changes neither the threat posed by the virus nor what the WHO or nations around the world must do. 

In particular, he said that the world has never before seen a pandemic sparked by a coronavirus and it has never before seen a pandemic that can be controlled at the same time.

On the other hand, Tedros said if countries detect, test, treat, isolate, trace and mobilize, they could prevent a handful of COVID-19 cases from becoming infection clusters or community infections. He added that even countries with community infections could roll back the tide of the disease. 

He noted that several countries had demonstrated the virus can be controlled and thanked South Korea, Iran and Italy for the measures they've taken against the outbreak. He also acknowledged that as in China, those measures are taking a social and economic toll.