WHO declares that virus crisis is now a pandemic

ROME (AP) — Expressing increasing alarm about mounting infections, the World Health Organization declared Wednesday that the global coronavirus crisis is now a pandemic.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who heads the U.N. agency, said the WHO is "deeply concerned by the alarming levels of spread and severity" of the outbreak. He also expressed concern about "the alarming levels of inaction."

"We have, therefore, made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic," he said at a briefing in Geneva.