MOSCOW, February 25. /TASS/. The global community needs to be ready to introduce urgent measures to fight the outbreak of novel coronavirus in order to prevent a pandemic, Dr. Bruce Aylward, head of the joint mission of the World Health Organization (WHO) and China tasked with combating coronavirus, informed, cited by Reuters news agency.

According to the WHO expert, world governments must prepare hospital beds, individual protection kits and isolation zones in case of an outbreak. He noted China’s "extraordinary mobilization" with the aim to combat the outbreak, which has shown that decisive steps by the government could curb the disease's spread. "China knows how to keep people alive," he added.

On December 31, Chinese authorities informed WHO about an outbreak of an unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan - a large trade and industrial center in central China populated by 12 million people. The source of the outbreak is the COVID-19 coronavirus. Cases of COVID-19 have been detected in over 30 countries, including Russia. WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak in China a global health emergency. Currently, the total number of people infected with coronavirus nears 77,600 in China with over 2,600 reported deaths. Meanwhile, over 27,200 people are said to have recovered from it.