GENEVA, March 15. /TASS/. The World Trade Organization (WTO) said on Sunday it suspends all meetings until the end of April because of the coronavirus situation and asks the staff of the Geneva-based secretariat to work from home until the end of March.
"Director-General Roberto Azev·do has informed WTO members and staff that access to the organization’s premises will be restricted as of 16 March," it said in a press statement. "All WTO meetings are suspended until the end of April and Secretariat staff have been requested to work from home until the end of March."
According to Azevedo, the decision was taken "in light of developments related to the COVID-19 virus." "This decision will be reviewed as appropriate," he said quoted as saying. "The WTO is reviewing alternatives for arranging virtual meetings to enable members to participate remotely."
Initially, WTO suspended its meetings for a period from March 11 to 20 after one of its staff members had been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus.
According to Switzerland’s public health authorities, as many as 1,563 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the country by now. More than 600 patients with suspected coronavirus are to undergo repeated tests. Thirteen patients have died.
A pneumonia outbreak caused by the COVID-19 virus (previously known as 2019-nCoV) was reported in China’s city of Wuhan, a large trade and industrial center with a population of 12 million, in late December 2019. Cases of the new coronavirus have also been reported from more than 120 countries and territories, including Russia, which has 59 coronavirus cases. Outside China, the worst affected countries are Italy, South Korea and Iran.
The World Health Organization says that the novel coronavirus cases across the globe have exceeded 142,000, with about 5,400 deaths. The WHO has officially described the situation with the novel coronavirus as a pandemic.