The coronavirus outbreak has now been declared a public health emergency.
Members of the World Health Organization made the declaration Thursday.
Director-General Tedros Adhanom said they are concerned about its spread to countries ill-equipped to deal with it.
“We’re working diligently with national and international public health partners to bring this outbreak under control as fast as possible,” said Adhanom.
Adhanom said the issue could have been worse had it not been for the quick actions by Chinese authorities.
There are more than 9,000 confirmed cases around the world and more than 200 people have died in China.
In Canada, there have been two confirmed cases in Ontario and one in British Columbia.
With files from Randy Thoms.
Previously, there have been 5 public health emergencies of international concern declared:
🚨 2009 H1N1
🚨 2014 polio
🚨 2014 Ebola in West Africa
🚨 2016 Zika
🚨 2019 Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo pic.twitter.com/HENllDwOSx— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) January 30, 2020