WHO should have recognized coronavirus pandemic earlier, Brazil says

The World Health Organization (WHO) should have recognized the outbreak of a new coronavirus as a pandemic earlier, Brazil's health minister Luis Enrique Mandetta told a parliamentary hearing on March 11. We raised this issue with the WHO even before China recognized (the existence of the problem), he said. According to the Minister, the decision would allow not to look for doctors and not to find out how infected citizens enter other countries. The relevant status, Mandetta explained, would ensure control of passengers who would initially be considered as potential carriers of infection. According to the news agency, on March 11, WHO Director General Tedros Adane Gebreisus declared a pandemic on coronavirus infection.