The coronavirus outbreak is now officially a pandemic

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Netaji Bose International Airport.
(Image credit: DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP via Getty Images)

The World Health Organization officially declared the new COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak a pandemic Wednesday.

After holding off on the label for some time, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the organization is "deeply concerned" by the virus' rapid spread, as well as by the lack of action being taken to confront it across the globe.

Gebreyesus also said it was the first time a coronavirus ever led to a pandemic. Tim O'Donnell

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Tim O'Donnell
Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.