World Health Organization declares coronavirus outbreak a global health emergency

The World Health Organization on Thursday declared the new coronavirus outbreak a global emergency amid the recent jump in the number of infected patients.

"The main reason is not what is happening in China but what is happening in other countries," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced at a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland.

"Our greatest concern is the potential for the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems, and which are ill-prepared to deal with it," Ghebreyesus added.

An outbreak of the virus -- which has killed at least 170 people as of Thursday and infected a total of 7,834 -- was first reported by Chinese officials after it originated at an animal and seafood market in the city of Wuhan.

Coronavirus, or 2019-nCoV, is now said to be transferable between humans; 38 new deaths and 1,737 new infected cases have been reported in the last 24 hours.