MOSCOW, January 31. /TASS/. The World Health Organization (WHO), which has declared an international public health emergency over the coronavirus outbreak, is primarily concerned about other countries, particularly, economically disadvantaged ones, Nikolai Malyshev, a Leading Research Fellow at the Gamaleya Scientific Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, told reporters on Friday.

"The World Health Organization has declared an emergency now not because China is doing poorly. On the contrary, it has been emphasized that China had promptly taken all measures to localize the disease on its soil. Clearly this has been a success, since just several dozen cases have been reported in other countries. The WHO is concerned about other countries, especially those that do not have enough financial resources to fight the disease," he said.

Malyshev explained that an emergency is "when all the forces and capabilities of the entire global health community under the WHO auspices" are used to combat the outbreak. This is a combination of streams of investment, the development of a vaccine as well as the mandatory notification of all countries about all cases of the disease, the expert noted.

He added that the World Health Organization’s decision not to restrict the flow of people between China and other countries, as well as the exchange of goods, facilitates international trade, because countries are exposed to substantial financial losses because of the coronavirus outbreak.

On December 31, 2019, Chinese authorities informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about an outbreak of an unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, a large trade and industrial metropolis in central China populated by 11 million people. On January 7, 2020, Chinese experts identified the infecting agent: coronavirus 2019-nCoV.

Cases of the new coronavirus were also confirmed in 18 other countries, including Australia, Vietnam, India, Canada, the United States and Thailand. On January 30, the World Health Organization declared the new coronavirus outbreak an international public health emergency.